The climate change dilemma has become the primary challenge of the 21st century, posing significant threats to both the environment and the economy of human society derived from natural resource consumption and urbanisation. Prior research has highlighted the importance of the designer’s involvement in creating sustainable design during the initial design stage. Nevertheless, passive design structures are associated with a significant initial construction cost. This study is to provide a preliminary review of comparative cost analysis for passive and active design buildings in cold regions of China. It is achieved through assessments of life cycle costings (LCC) analysis for both active and passive design buildings. Case studies research strategies were adopted to gather the initial construction and cost use of housing projects, about $500,000 compared to $420,000 for active building, coupled with the standard form of elemental cost analysis, ECA assessment for both active and passive design with similar building typologies characteristics in Zhangjiakou, China. It is also found that the operational cost is reduced from $13,000 to $7,000 annually. The aspects of passive design in buildings, including the building envelope, ventilation design, and utilisation of renewable energy, were examined to quantify the elemental cost analysis of constructing the building. Data were analysed using LCC assessment of the initial cost and cost in the use of passive over active design buildings. The preliminary research indicates that passive design has reduced yearly operating costs with higher initial and end-of-life costs. In contrast, the Active Design Building has higher annual operating costs but lower initial costs. Additionally, the Passive Design’s residual values are larger than the Active Design’s. This preliminary findings model will serve as a basis for cost estimation and assist in the preparation of feasibility studies for effective passive design housing development.