The honest answer is that there is no single price, and anyone who gives you one without asking about your building is guessing. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the number, so you can judge a quote — ours or anyone else’s — instead of just comparing totals.
The biggest driver: how complex the building is
What moves the price most is not how many units there are, it is how much there is to inspect, condition-assess and cost. The more complex the property, the more expensive the study — and two buildings with the same unit count can be very different jobs:
- Apartment buildings carry the most shared infrastructure — envelope, roofing, elevators, boilers, corridors, parkade, life-safety systems — and every one of those is a component to inventory, condition-assess and cost across 30 years.
- Townhouse corporations share less: often roofing, siding, walkways and parking, with far less shared mechanical.
- Bare-land corporations may own little more than roads, drainage and common landscaping, with the buildings themselves owned by the individual lot owners.
- Commercial and mixed-use properties vary the most, because what is common property is set by the corporation’s own documents rather than by a standard pattern.
So an apartment building will be quoted higher than a townhouse or bare-land corporation of the same size, because there is simply more of it to assess. It is the first thing we ask about, and a quote that does not ask which one you are should be treated with suspicion.
Then: how many units
Within a building type, unit count scales the price, which is why quotes are banded by it. More units means more of each component to inventory and assess, and a larger financial model to build and defend. It is also the figure a provider can price from without seeing the property — but on its own it tells you little, because a 60-unit bare-land corporation and a 60-unit apartment building are not the same piece of work.
A new study, or an update to an existing one
If you already have a study and it is still reasonably current, you may not need a full new one. A reserve fund analysis updates the existing forecast — re-costing components, folding in what has actually been spent, and re-testing the contribution plan — without repeating the whole inventory from scratch. It costs less than a new study because it is less work, not because it is a lesser document. Whether you are eligible depends on your jurisdiction’s cadence and how old the existing report is.
Where the property is, and what its statute demands
The jurisdiction sets the cadence and the rules the report has to satisfy — every five years in Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, every three in Ontario — and which professionals are permitted to author it. That affects how often you are buying one, and it is worth factoring into the total cost of compliance rather than looking at a single engagement in isolation.
What should not change the price
Being in a hurry, for one. A provider that charges a premium for a normal turnaround is charging you for their backlog. Our first draft is 30 days or less as standard, and the reason is process rather than triage.
The other is the software. Some providers price the report and then sell you the tool that keeps it usable. Every Reserve Plus engagement includes myRPlanner (powered by StelorPM) for the full term — it is included rather than sold separately, because a study nobody maintains stops being accurate almost immediately.
The cheapest quote is not always the cheapest outcome
The cost that actually hurts a corporation is rarely the study. It is the special assessment that arrives because the plan drifted out of date and nobody noticed until the money was already short. A report that is accurate on delivery and then never touched for five years has spent most of that period describing a building that no longer exists. Judge a quote on whether the plan stays true, not only on the number at the bottom.
Getting your actual number
We do not publish a price list, for the reason above: a single figure would be wrong for almost everyone reading it. What we do instead is answer quickly. Tell us the unit count, the building type and where the property is, and the quote comes back in about a minute — a real figure for your building, as a PDF, not a range to interpret.
Common questions
How much does a reserve fund study cost?
There is no single figure, because the scope is not the same for every property. The largest driver is how complex the building is — an apartment building with elevators, boilers, a parkade and a full envelope has far more to inventory, condition-assess and cost than a townhouse or bare-land corporation, and is quoted higher even at the same size. Unit count then scales the price within a building type, which is why quotes are banded by it. Whether you need a full new study or an update to an existing one changes it again. Reserve Plus prices from those inputs and returns a real figure in about a minute.
Why do reserve fund study providers not publish a price list?
Because a single number would be wrong for almost everyone who read it. A 6-unit bare-land corporation and a 300-unit high rise both need a reserve fund study, and the work involved is not comparable. A published figure would either be a low anchor that no real quote matches, or a high one that puts off the smaller corporations it does not apply to. The useful answer is a quote for your building.
Does a depreciation report cost more than a reserve fund study?
They are the same kind of document under different provincial names — a 30-year component inventory, condition assessment and funding plan — so they are priced on the same basis. What changes the number is your building, not the label your province uses.
Is the cheapest reserve fund study the best value?
Not usually, and the reason is what happens after delivery. A study is a snapshot, and a snapshot goes out of date as soon as something is repaired early, deferred, or costs more than projected. A report that is never updated stops describing the building within a year or two, and the corporation ends up paying for the same work again. Every Reserve Plus engagement includes myRPlanner for the full term, which is what keeps the plan current between studies.