How much does it cost to build a hospital in Canada? In the Greater Toronto Area, a general or acute care hospital costs $1,030 to $1,620 per square foot in hard construction cost in 2026, according to Altus Group’s 2026 Canadian Cost Guide. That figure excludes HST, land, site development, parking, financing and soft costs, so the full project budget is well above the construction number.
Below: what the per-square-foot range covers, two real Ontario hospital projects, why a cost-per-bed number is hard to pin down, and what drives hospital building cost up or down.
Hospital building cost per square foot in 2026
Hospitals sit at the top of the cost table. The Altus GTA range for a general or acute care hospital is roughly double the range for a medical clinic and three to four times a Class A office tower. Our hospital cost benchmark page has a calculator that applies the range to your floor area.
View the data
| Building type (GTA) | $/sq ft low | $/sq ft high |
|---|---|---|
| General hospital / acute care | $1,030 | $1,620 |
| International airport terminal | $885 | $1,175 |
| Medical clinic / treatment centre | $460 | $800 |
| Secondary school | $440 | $750 |
| Office, Class A (5–30 storeys) | $305 | $450 |
A simple worked example. A 100,000 sq ft acute care building at $1,030 to $1,620 per sq ft is $103 million to $162 million in hard cost. Soft costs, contingency, escalation and HST all sit on top of that. Our post on total project cost vs construction cost explains what to add, and the owner tools help with the rest.
A note on scope: the Altus range we publish is for the GTA. Costs in other Canadian cities differ, so check the market you are building in before using these numbers.
Cost to build a hospital in Ontario: two real examples
Two Trillium Health Partners projects in Mississauga and Etobicoke show the scale of current Ontario hospital work. Both are tracked on our GTA projects map.
| Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital | Gilgan Family Queensway Health Centre | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract value | About $13.9 billion, fixed price | $1.3 billion, fixed price |
| Delivery model | P3: design, build, finance and maintain | Build and finance |
| Scope | 22 storeys, 2.8 million sq ft of hospital space; includes the Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children | 9-storey patient tower, 600,000 sq ft, plus a standalone central utility plant |
| Beds | More than 950 | More than 350 |
| Completion target | Substantial completion April 2033 | 2029 |
Don’t divide these contract values by floor area and treat the result as a construction cost. The Mississauga contract is a public-private partnership that bundles design, construction, financing and long-term maintenance for two hospitals. Its floor area also excludes the underground parking levels. Contract values are useful for understanding scale and market impact, not for benchmarking.
How much does it cost to build a 100-bed hospital?
We don’t publish a cost-per-bed figure, because we haven’t found a current, public Canadian source that gives one on a like-for-like basis. The reason is simple: floor area per bed varies enormously. A hospital with an emergency department, surgical suites, diagnostic imaging and a central utility plant needs far more space per bed than a facility built mainly for inpatient care.
The reliable route is to size the building from a functional program (the departments, rooms and services it must hold) and then apply the per-square-foot range. A cost-per-bed shortcut can be off by a wide margin in either direction.
What drives hospital building cost
- Clinical program and acuity. Operating rooms, intensive care, imaging and labs are the most expensive spaces to build. The more of them, the higher the cost per square foot.
- Mechanical and electrical systems. Hospitals need redundant power, medical gases, high air-change rates and strict infection control. These systems are a large share of the cost and drive long lead times on equipment.
- Delivery model. Large Ontario hospitals are often procured through Infrastructure Ontario as fixed-price contracts, sometimes as P3s that include financing and maintenance. Those structures change what the contract price contains.
- Schedule and escalation. Hospital projects run for years. Our escalation allowance guide shows how to budget for cost growth across a long build.
- Market capacity. Big hospital programs tie up mechanical, electrical and specialty trades for years, which can thin out bids and lengthen lead times on other healthcare projects in the region.
What owners should do
- Start from a functional program, not a bed count. Agree on departments and services before anyone quotes a budget.
- Match the estimate to the design stage. An early number is a range, not a promise. See our guide to estimate classes.
- Budget the whole project. Add soft costs, contingency, escalation, equipment and HST to the hard cost before going to the board.
- Test the market early. Check trade capacity and equipment lead times before fixing the schedule.
Run your own numbers: our GTA hospital cost calculator turns the range into a budget for your floor area, with soft costs and contingency.
Go deeper: what a medical clinic costs to build in Toronto and what a Class D estimate can and can't tell you.
FAQ
How much does it cost to build a hospital in Canada?
In the Greater Toronto Area, the hard construction cost of a general or acute care hospital is $1,030 to $1,620 per square foot in 2026, according to Altus Group's 2026 Canadian Cost Guide. That excludes GST/HST, site development, parking, land and financing, as well as design fees and other soft costs.
How much does it cost to build a 100-bed hospital?
There is no reliable public cost-per-bed figure, because floor area per bed varies widely with the services a hospital provides. Size the building from a functional program first, then apply the per-square-foot range. For example, 100,000 sq ft at $1,030 to $1,620 per sq ft is $103 million to $162 million in hard cost alone.
How much does it cost to build a hospital in Ontario?
GTA hard costs run $1,030 to $1,620 per square foot in 2026 (Altus Group). Recent Ontario contracts show the full scale: the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital P3 is a fixed-price contract of about $13.9 billion for 2.8 million sq ft and more than 950 beds, and the Gilgan Family Queensway Health Centre is a $1.3 billion fixed-price contract for a 600,000 sq ft tower with more than 350 beds.
What is included in hospital building cost per square foot?
The Altus GTA range covers the building above grade, including foundations. It excludes GST/HST, site development, parking, land and financing. Owners also need to budget soft costs, contingency, escalation and any medical equipment that sits outside the construction contract.
The bottom line
A hospital in the GTA costs $1,030 to $1,620 per square foot to build in 2026, before land, soft costs, financing and tax. The number that matters for your board is the full project cost, built from a functional program and tested against the market.
Planning a healthcare project? Book a 30-minute call and we’ll review your budget and schedule assumptions.
Sources: Altus Group, 2026 Canadian Cost Guide release (April 23, 2026); Altus Group, 2026 Canadian Cost Guide, GTA hard costs, as published on our hospital cost benchmark page; Plenary, financial close on the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital (July 10, 2025); Lexpert, $13.9B contract for Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital; link2build, $1.3B contract for Gilgan Family Queensway Health Centre (February 2024). This article is general information, not financial or legal advice.