Start with what you are building — the build type sets the QS cost spine, the rate column and the HST mechanic. Then pick how the project is capitalised, in a light feasibility version or a fully detailed, cost-coded version.
Step 1 — What are you building?
Step 2 — How is the purpose-built rental held, and roughly how big?
Tenure is the controlling test for the CMHC routes, not building form. A condominium held entirely as rental by one owner can qualify; a building sold unit by unit cannot.
This count is for eligibility screening only. It decides which financing routes below are open — CMHC MLI Select needs 5+ rental units, ACLP has its own scale and affordability thresholds, while cash and conventional are always open. You won’t re-enter it: the real count is set later inside the proforma workspace, in Scale & Unit Breakdown.
Step 3 — Financing route
All four routes. MLI Select is the default where the project holds 5+ units as rental — sized on the lesser of LTC, LTV and DCR.
CMHC ACLP (Apartment Construction Loan Program)
available- A direct CMHC construction loan: CMHC bears the premium, affordability is mandatory, leverage runs to 100% of the residential component at Tier 1, and a takeout must be arranged at end of term. Model it in the ACLP planner below.
Conventional construction loan
availableCash — no debt
availableClassic takes one total project cost, holds every default at the conservative end and reports a range — the honest shape of a concept-stage number. Pro opens the full cost structure — the A–D elemental spine for buildings, or the LD servicing spine for a land subdivision — with per-line quantities, rates and sources, and packages the result for your QS and your broker. Both add contingency and escalation when your numbers don’t already carry them, and both start blank.
DoBuild construction management
Do you need a construction manager for your project?
We deliver the budget you just modelled — cost control, trades, draws and lender-ready reporting.