Collingwood Building Permit Fees
The Permit Is the Small Cheque
A new house in Collingwood pays a few thousand dollars for its permit and about thirty-five times that in charges collected with it. Here is the whole stack, from the Town’s own 2026 schedules.
Permits & Approvals
Zoning, building permits, conservation and septic approvals, prepared and managed for you.See the service →Collingwood building permit fees for a new detached house are $1.17 per square foot in 2026, which sounds like the whole answer and is about three percent of it. The Town’s Building By-law sets that rate, but the same application also triggers Town development charges, County of Simcoe charges, education charges for two school boards, a water meter, a construction water fee and, on an infill lot, a grading deposit. On the Town’s published rates, the development charges alone on one single detached house in Collingwood come to roughly $101,000.
We are A&R Design Build, based in Innisfil, Ontario. We have built custom homes and cottages across Central Ontario since 1973, and we prepare the permit applications for the houses we build, in Collingwood as anywhere else, so these schedules are paperwork we fill in rather than numbers we read about. Collingwood is in Simcoe County, one of the regions we serve. Every figure below comes from a Town or County document named on this page, because fees change and you should be able to check the source.
How Collingwood Building Permits Are Priced
Schedule A to Collingwood’s Building By-law 2019-039 uses one formula for most work: the permit fee equals a service index rate times the floor area. For houses in Collingwood, the 2026 rates are:
| Detached, semi-detached, row house | $1.17 per sq ft |
|---|---|
| Pre-fabricated detached dwelling | $1.15 per sq ft |
| New finishes, such as a finished basement | $0.81 per sq ft |
| Interior alterations to finished space | $0.67 per sq ft |
| Minimum fee for any permit | $170 |
In Collingwood, what counts as floor area is where the money moves. The by-law measures every floor to the outside face of the exterior walls and includes finished basement space, balconies, lofts, mezzanines and habitable attics. It leaves out an unfinished basement and a garage that is attached to or built into the house. Decks and wood-burning fireplaces are charged separately on top. So a 2,400 sq ft two-storey with an attached garage and an unfinished basement pays on 2,400 sq ft; finish 1,000 sq ft of that basement at the same time and the fee is charged on 3,400.
The Full Stack on One Collingwood House
Here is the arithmetic for one Collingwood example: a 2,400 sq ft single detached house on a serviced infill lot, unfinished basement, attached garage, permit applied for in October 2026.
| Zoning Certificate (2026 Fees and Service Charges) | $46 |
|---|---|
| Building permit, 2,400 sq ft at $1.17 | $2,808 |
| Collingwood water meter | $475 |
| Construction water supply | $329 |
| Lot grading deposit, infill lots (refundable) | $3,477 |
| Town of Collingwood development charges, single detached | $80,121 |
| County of Simcoe development charge | $14,975 |
| Simcoe County District School Board EDC | $3,711 |
| Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board EDC | $2,372 |
Read the table with three caveats. The education rates step up on October 30, 2026, to $4,011 for the public board and $2,672 for the Catholic board, so a permit issued after that date pays the higher figures. Collingwood indexes its development charges every year, and its pamphlet has already been reissued twice in 2026. And $43,357 of the Town figure is for urban services, water and wastewater, which is the part tied to a serviced lot; the pamphlet lists it separately from the $36,764 in municipal-wide services. Confirm the current Collingwood numbers with the Town before you budget, not after.
When Each Collingwood Charge Is Due
Timing matters as much as the totals, because the big Collingwood amounts land before a shovel goes in.
Two details are easy to miss. The Collingwood pamphlet says development charges are calculated on the day of a site plan or rezoning application where one applies, otherwise on the day the by-law sets, and paid when the first building permit is issued. And if an old house on the lot was demolished to make way for the new one, both the Town and the County give a credit against development charges, but only where the new building permit comes within five years of the demolition permit. A residential demolition permit in Collingwood is $170.
What Costs Extra in Collingwood, and How to Not Pay It
Revisions
A major revision to reviewed drawings is $380 for up to three hours of review, then $170 an hour; a minor one is $58. Complete drawings the first time avoid both.
How we draw →Re-inspections
$170 each when work called for inspection is not ready. Darcy McMahon, our site supervisor, manages the trades, schedule and quality control that keep a stage ready when it is called.
Our process →Starting early
Work before a permit is issued draws a 200% surcharge, minimum $170 and maximum $5,000. Where an early start is genuinely needed, a conditional permit for a new house is available for a $400 application fee on top of the normal permit fee.
Permits we handle →Collingwood refunds shrink as the file moves. Schedule A returns 75% of the permit fee if only administrative work has been done, 70% once zoning has been checked, 50% after plans examination, 45% if the permit has been issued but nothing inspected, and 5% less for each inspection after that. Nothing comes back two years after the application. A staged permit for a foundation or structural shell is a further $340 if a project needs one.
Try Your Own Numbers
Because the Collingwood fee is a rate times floor area, a plan’s size gives you a first Collingwood figure. Filter our 82 plans by living area and room count, take the square footage on any card and multiply by $1.17. Add any basement you intend to finish, take off nothing for an attached garage, and you have the permit portion. The development charges do not change with size: a 1,400 sq ft bungalow and a 3,400 sq ft two-storey on the same serviced Collingwood lot pay the same single detached rate.
Loading 82 plans
No plans match those filters. Widen the search, or tell us what you need and we will draw it.
On every build we take on, our team prepares the applications and handles the back-and-forth with the Town, and Francine Nash in accounting and administration keeps every dollar of a project accounted for. When the house is finished, our accountant prepares a statement of the HST paid on the build, which is what you need to claim a new-home HST rebate if you qualify.
Questions About Collingwood Building Permit Fees
How much is a building permit for a new house in Collingwood?
Collingwood’s 2026 Schedule A charges $1.17 per square foot of floor area for a detached house, or $1.15 for a pre-fabricated detached dwelling. A 2,400 sq ft house with an unfinished basement and attached garage works out to $2,808 for the permit itself.
What development charges apply to a new house in Collingwood?
On the Town’s pamphlet for rates effective May 4, 2026: $80,121 in Town charges for a single detached house, $14,975 for the County of Simcoe, and per-unit education charges listed for both the public and Catholic school boards. Indexing changes them over time.
When do I pay Collingwood building permit fees?
Schedule A says permit fees are due and payable when the application is submitted, and the Town’s new house page says the building permit portion is paid before the Building Code review begins. Development charges are payable when the first building permit is issued.
Does a finished basement change the fee?
Yes. Finished basement area counts toward the floor area the fee is charged on; an unfinished basement does not. Finishing it later needs its own permit, charged at $0.81 per sq ft for new finishes in 2026.
Can I get a refund if I cancel?
Partly. Schedule A refunds 75% if only administration has been done, 70% after zoning review, 50% after plans examination and 45% after issue with no inspections, less 5% for each inspection. Nothing is refunded after two years.
What happens if work starts before the permit?
Collingwood adds an administrative surcharge of 200% of the required permit fee, with a minimum of $170 and a maximum of $5,000, on top of the fee itself.
Related Reading
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Send us the address and the size of house you have in mind. We will lay out the permit, the charges and the timing before you commit.