Land transfer tax calculator

What Ontario charges to buy a home

Ontario charges on a sliding scale to 2%, and 2.5% above $2 million where the land holds one or two single-family residences. On a $750,000 purchase that comes to $11,475, or 1.53% of the price.

It is charged on the value of the consideration — usually the purchase price, but it also picks up assumed liabilities, upgrades and certain soft costs, and in some transfers the fair market value is used instead.

The tax is due on closing and, unlike almost every other cost of buying, it cannot be rolled into the mortgage. It has to be cash. On this purchase that is $11,475 that has to exist in an account on the day, on top of the deposit and the legal fees.

The Ontario scale

0.50% from $0 to $55,000; 1.00% from $55,000 to $250,000; 1.50% from $250,000 to $400,000; 2.00% from $400,000 to $2,000,000; 2.50% above $2,000,000. Each rate applies only to the part of the price inside its own band, the same way an income tax bracket does — so crossing a threshold never costs you more than the dollar that crossed it.

$400,000 — $4,475, an effective 1.12%.

$750,000 — $11,475, an effective 1.53%.

$1,200,000 — $20,475, an effective 1.71%.

$2,500,000 — $48,975, an effective 1.96%.

Those bands are the whole scale. There is no surcharge above them here.

What a first-time buyer gets back

Up to $4,000 back, which covers the whole tax on a home up to $368,000. You must be 18 or over and never have owned a home anywhere in the world — and neither can your spouse, while they were your spouse.

On $750,000 that is worth $4,000, taking the bill from $11,475 to $7,475.

The eligibility test is stricter than people expect: never having owned a home anywhere in the world, not just in Canada. Inheriting a share of a property counts as having owned one. And in Ontario the rule reaches your spouse — if they owned a home while they were your spouse, you do not qualify either.

The speculation tax on foreign buyers

Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax has been 25% since 25 October 2022, on residential property anywhere in the province, on top of the ordinary tax.

It is charged on the whole purchase price, not on a band of it, which makes it far larger than the transfer tax itself. On $750,000 the speculation tax alone is $187,500 against $11,475 of ordinary transfer tax.

It applies to individuals who are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents, and to foreign corporations and taxable trustees. There are rebates and exemptions — for some workers, students and people who later become permanent residents — and they are specific enough that they are not modelled here.

The same $750,000 home across Canada

Transfer tax on an identical purchase, cheapest first:

1. Alberta — nothing

2. Saskatchewan — nothing

3. Quebec — $9,361

4. Montreal — $10,349

5. Ontario — $11,475 ← this page

6. British Columbia — $13,000

7. Toronto — $22,950

Ontario comes 5 of 7. The spread is $22,950 on the same house, which is a bigger difference than most people's moving costs — and it is money that has to be found in cash.

Four jurisdictions charge nothing: Alberta, Saskatchewan and the three territories only levy registration fees. That is not a rounding difference, it is a structural one, and any calculator that returns a figure for Alberta is inventing it.

The city boundary is worth $11,475

Two identical $750,000 houses, one inside Toronto and one in Mississauga or Vaughan a few streets away. The Toronto one costs $22,950 in transfer tax; the other $11,475. Same province, same scale, same price — $11,475 of difference, because only Toronto levies a second tax.

That gap widens as the price rises. At $2,000,000 it is $36,475, and above $3,000,000 it opens much further, because the municipal scale climbs where the provincial one stops.

It is a real factor in where people buy, and it is invisible in a listing price. It is also the single strongest argument for checking the municipality and not just the province before making an offer — the tax follows the city boundary, not the postal region or the transit map.

Where the first-time buyer relief runs out

The relief is not a percentage, it is a ceiling — so it covers the whole tax up to a point and then stops growing. Measured by recalculating price by price, that point in Ontario is around $369,000. Below it a qualifying first-time buyer pays nothing at all; above it they pay the difference.

$369,000 — $10 after a $4,000 refund.

$619,000 — $4,855 after a $4,000 refund.

$1,119,000 — $14,855 after a $4,000 refund.

The practical consequence: the relief matters most to the buyers with the least, and disappears fastest in the markets where homes cost the most. In Ontario it stops covering the full bill at a price that is below the average detached home in several of its cities.

Why this one has to be cash

Almost every cost of buying a home can be financed. The purchase itself is a mortgage. Renovations can be rolled in. Even the deposit is often borrowed. Land transfer tax cannot be, and that is what makes it the cost that catches people out.

On $750,000 in Ontario that is $11,475 that has to be in an account on closing day, on top of the down payment, the legal fees, the title insurance and the adjustments. It is the reason a purchase that looked affordable on the mortgage calculator can fail three weeks before it completes.

The order of events matters too: the tax is calculated on the value of the consideration, which is not always the price on the listing. Assumed liabilities count. Upgrades on a new build count. And on certain transfers — long leases, some transfers between a corporation and its shareholders — the fair market value is used instead of what was actually paid.

What actually moves the number

The thresholds in Ontario sit at $55,000, $250,000, $400,000, $2,000,000. Negotiating a price down across one of them does not produce a cliff — only the dollars above the line are taxed at the higher rate — but the marginal cost of the last dollar does step up at each one.

At $55,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $100 in extra tax — an effective 1.00% on that slice.

At $250,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $150 in extra tax — an effective 1.50% on that slice.

At $400,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $200 in extra tax — an effective 2.00% on that slice.

That is the honest way to read a transfer tax scale: not as a rate on the house, but as a rate on each part of its price. The headline "1.53%" on a $750,000 purchase is an average of several different rates, and it is never the rate you pay on the last dollar you negotiate.

Where these rates come from

Every scale on this page was read off the authority that sets it, with the date:

Ontario Ministry of Finance — Calculating Land Transfer Tax — read 2026-09-07. https://www.ontario.ca/document/land-transfer-tax/calculating-land-transfer-tax

Ontario Ministry of Finance — Land Transfer Tax Refunds for First-Time Homebuyers — read 2026-09-07. https://www.ontario.ca/document/land-transfer-tax/land-transfer-tax-refunds-first-time-homebuyers

City of Toronto — Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees (rates as of 1 April 2026) — read 2026-09-07. https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/property-taxes-utilities/municipal-land-transfer-tax-mltt/municipal-land-transfer-tax-mltt-rates-and-fees/

Province of British Columbia — Property transfer tax — read 2026-09-07. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/property-transfer-tax

Gouvernement du Québec — Droits sur les mutations immobilières — read 2026-09-07. https://www.quebec.ca/gouvernement/gestion-municipale/finances-fiscalite-municipales/fiscalite/droits-mutations-immobilieres

Ville de Montréal — Comment sont calculés les droits sur les mutations immobilières (tranches 2026) — read 2026-09-07. https://montreal.ca/articles/comment-sont-calcules-les-droits-sur-les-mutations-immobilieres-9279

And what this figure does not cover:

— Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are not covered yet. Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces do charge a transfer tax — in Nova Scotia it is set municipally — and publishing an estimate before reading each authority would be worse than the gap.

— Registration and title fees are excluded everywhere. They are small next to the tax but they are not zero, and they are charged even in the provinces that levy no transfer tax at all.

— The tax is calculated on the value of the consideration, which is usually the purchase price but not always: assumed liabilities, upgrades and soft costs count, and in some transfers the fair market value is used instead.

— Quebec municipalities other than Montreal use the provincial floor here. Any municipality may raise its brackets above $500,000 up to 3%, and many do, so a purchase outside Montreal can cost more than this shows.

Questions

How much is land transfer tax on a $750,000 home in Ontario?

$11,475. That is 1.53% of the price, due in cash on closing.

What do first-time buyers get back in Ontario?

Up to $4,000 back, which covers the whole tax on a home up to $368,000. You must be 18 or over and never have owned a home anywhere in the world — and neither can your spouse, while they were your spouse. On $750,000 that is worth $4,000, bringing the bill to $7,475.

Can I add land transfer tax to my mortgage?

No. It is due on closing and it has to be cash, which is what makes it the cost that surprises people — it sits on top of the deposit and the legal fees, and no lender will finance it.

Which provinces have no land transfer tax?

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. They charge registration fees on the title and the mortgage instead, which are much smaller and are a fee for a service rather than a tax on the transaction.