Every second call we take starts the same way. What does it cost to build a custom infill in a Belgravia, Rio Terrace, Parkview, or Cameron Heights lot. And the answer we give is always the same. It depends, but here is the honest range, and here is what moves the number inside it.
The ranges we quote
For a new custom infill in Edmonton's mature core, the useful bracket is $250 to $400 per square foot of finished space, in mid-2026 dollars, for the build alone. Not counting the lot. Not counting the teardown. Not counting soft costs.
The bottom of that range is a well-run, honest infill on a straightforward lot with a considered but restrained finish package. Engineered hardwood on the main, quartz counters, a good but not custom cabinet line, standard windows, a proper mechanical package. Under grid, a 2,000 square foot two-storey with a legal basement suite lands here.
The top of that range is the house we are asked to quote most often. Full masonry or wood-siding facade, deeper foundation for a raised ceiling on the main, high-end windows, custom cabinetry, real stone counters, high-spec mechanical, and a rooftop or third-storey element. A house we built at Yogi's on a Rio Terrace corner in 2026 sits at the top of that range. Four levels, elevator, marble kitchen, travertine wet rooms.
What moves the per-square-foot number
The lot itself. A flat, cleared, level lot with a wide frontage costs less to build on than a sloped, tight, tree-covered one. Removing a 1950s bungalow, hauling it away, and abating anything with asbestos in the plaster or duct wrap is a real line item. Expect $25,000 to $60,000 for teardown and abatement depending on the house.
Foundation and basement. A standard poured concrete foundation with a walkout or a full daylight basement is a bigger job than a slab. A legal basement suite adds finish, plumbing, egress windows, and a separate mechanical strategy. Adding a suite adds $60,000 to $110,000 to the finish package versus an unfinished basement of the same footprint.
Ceiling heights. Going from an 8 foot main to a 9 foot main is worth the money. Going to 10 feet on the main and 9 feet on the upper is a signature move on a $2M house, and it costs. Every taller ceiling means more framing, more drywall, more paint, taller windows, taller doors, and a longer staircase run.
Cabinets, counters, tile. The single largest swing item outside the shell. A quality builder cabinet package from a good local shop runs $60,000 to $90,000 on a house our size. A full custom package from a millworker like Crateworks runs $120,000 to $220,000. Same story with counters. Standard quartz at $75 per square foot installed versus book-matched marble slabs at $350.
Mechanical. A code minimum forced-air furnace and central AC on a 2,500 square foot house is one number. A high-efficiency two-stage furnace, HRV, in-floor hydronic on the basement slab, and central AC is another. On a Yogi's House scale build with an elevator, in-floor hydronic through the primary bath, and a real domestic hot water strategy, mechanical alone runs north of $110,000.
Windows. Standard triple-pane vinyl is what most local infills use, and it is fine. Fiberglass or aluminum-clad wood at the high end doubles the window package cost. On a house with 40 windows, that is a $30,000 to $70,000 decision.
The lot is a separate conversation
A mature-core Edmonton infill lot, ready to build on, is $400,000 to $900,000 today depending on the neighbourhood and the width. Belgravia and Rio Terrace lots at 40 to 50 feet trade at the top of that. Parkview and Pleasantview at the middle. A skinny 25 foot lot in Alberta Avenue or Prince Rupert trades at the bottom.
If you already own the house you plan to tear down, your effective lot cost is what a builder would pay you for it as tear-down inventory. That is worth knowing before you decide whether to renovate the existing house or start over.
Soft costs are real and they add up
Design, engineering, survey, permit fees, development permit fees, appeal fees if you trigger one, ANHW warranty enrollment, and construction financing carry. On a $1.4M build, budget 6 to 10 percent of construction cost for soft costs, or roughly $85,000 to $140,000. Nothing here is optional. Some of it is negotiable.
What a build like this costs today
For a 40 foot Pleasantview lot, 2,200 square feet above grade with a legal basement suite at a mid-to-upper finish level, the current cost picture looks like this.
- Teardown and abatement: $38,000
- Foundation, framing, shell to lock-up: $520,000
- Mechanical, electrical, plumbing: $210,000
- Windows and doors: $85,000
- Roofing and cladding: $115,000
- Kitchen, bathrooms, millwork: $195,000
- Flooring, tile, paint, trim: $135,000
- Basement suite finish and separate mechanical: $95,000
- Landscape, fencing, driveway, deck: $65,000
- Soft costs, permits, warranty, financing carry: $110,000
That is roughly $1,570,000 for a 2,900 square foot house including the legal basement suite footage. On the above-grade footprint of 2,200 square feet, it prices at $713 per square foot loaded, or $541 per square foot if you count both floors of finished space. Land is a separate $675,000 conversation.
Those are current 2026 Edmonton numbers, not a forecast.
What is actually driving cost up
Two things, and it is worth saying them plainly.
Material and labour costs have compounded roughly 5 to 8 percent a year through the current cycle. A build package that would have priced around $1.15M in early 2023 comes in closer to $1.35M today at the same finish level. That is not a builder mark-up. That is the cost of drywall, framing labour, and cabinet doors.
Mature-neighbourhood premiums are a specific tax on infill in Edmonton. The City of Edmonton publishes the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay and its regulations, and building inside them means smaller lots, tighter setbacks, tree preservation, and a longer design permit path. That is a real cost baked into every mature-core price we quote.
What we would tell a first-time infill buyer
Do not shop by price per square foot from a spreadsheet. Ask three builders to quote the same house on the same lot at the same finish level, and read the exclusions. The difference between a $1.2M number and a $1.6M number on paper is almost always allowances that will be trued up on your dime, or scope quietly missing from the low one.
For the follow-up questions this raises, read our Alberta New Home Warranty guide for what a builder is required to cover and the specific 75 percent trigger that catches homeowners off-guard on major renovations, and our post on how to choose an Edmonton infill builder for what actually separates the shortlist from a hollow low bid.
And if you want a walk-through of a real house at this price point, Yogi's House is documented top to bottom, with a room-by-room materials breakdown and the underestimated cost items we wish we had told the client about earlier.