Budget 1.5% to 4% of the price, everyone says — but which lines actually fill it? The complete Ontario checklist, with a worked example where land transfer tax does most of the damage.
Lenders and the FCAC commonly suggest budgeting 1.5% to 4% of the purchase price for closing costs, on top of your down payment. In Ontario that range is honest but wide, because one line — land transfer tax — swings from about 1% of the price to nearly 3% depending on the city and whether you are a first-time buyer, and because new builds pile on levies that resale purchases never see. This guide itemizes the lines so you can place your own purchase inside the range instead of hoping the midpoint finds you. Every range below is a typical Ontario planning figure and is labelled an estimate; your lawyer's statement of adjustments on closing day is the only authoritative total.
| Closing cost | Typical Ontario range (estimate) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Land transfer tax | Computed exactly — see below | Ontario tax on every purchase; Toronto adds a second, matching tax. First-time rebates up to $4,000 (Ontario) + $4,475 (Toronto). |
| Legal fees + disbursements | $1,500–$2,500+ | Your real estate lawyer or notary; disbursements (searches, registration) are billed on top of the base fee. |
| Title insurance | $250–$400 | Often arranged through your lawyer; most lenders require it. |
| Appraisal | $300–$500 | Ordered by the lender; sometimes waived or covered on insured mortgages. |
| Home inspection | $400–$600 | Optional but recommended on resales; usually paid before closing, not on the day. |
| PST on CMHC premium | 8% of the premium | Only when the down payment is under 20%. Cash at closing — see the worked example. |
| Property tax & utility adjustments | Varies — $0 to several thousand | If the seller prepaid taxes or utilities past closing day, you reimburse your share. |
| Status certificate (condos) | ~$100 | Reviews the condo corporation's finances; your lawyer may charge a review fee as well. |
| Utility hookups & moving | $100–$300+ hookups; moving varies | Connection fees, deposits for new accounts, and the move itself. |
| Development levies (new builds only) | Varies widely — can reach five figures | Plus HST on the new-home price. The biggest reason new builds break the 1.5%-4% rule. |
Take the purchase this site's calculators use as their default. Land transfer tax: Ontario $9,475 plus Toronto $9,475 is $18,950, minus both first-time rebates ($4,000 + $4,475) for a net $10,475. With 10% down, the mortgage is $585,000 at 90% loan-to-value, so the CMHC premium is 3.10% — $18,135 added to the mortgage — and the 8% PST on it is $1,451 in cash. Add planning estimates for legal ($2,000), appraisal ($400), inspection ($500), and title insurance ($300) and the closing total lands around $15,126 — about 2.3% of the price, squarely inside the rule-of-thumb band. Move the same purchase outside Toronto and the tax line drops by $9,475; remove the first-time rebates and it climbs by $8,475. That is the whole lesson: in Ontario, closing costs are mostly a land transfer tax question, which is why this site has a dedicated calculator for it and city-by-city pages for Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, and the rest of the province.
Keep the $650,000 price and 10% down from the worked example and change only the buyer and the city. Toronto, first-time buyer: about $15,126 (2.3% of price), as computed above. Outside Toronto, first-time buyer — say Mississauga: the Toronto tax vanishes and only the Ontario rebate applies, so the tax line falls to $5,475 and the total drops to about $10,126 (1.6%). Toronto, repeat buyer: no rebates at all, the tax line is the full $18,950, and the total rises to about $23,601 (3.6%) — before a single new-build levy or an unusually large tax adjustment enters the picture. One house, one down payment, and a $13,000 spread in closing costs driven almost entirely by two variables: which side of the Toronto boundary the home is on, and whether the buyer has owned before. That is exactly why a single percentage is a poor budget, and why the two questions this site's land transfer tax calculator asks first — where, and first-time or not — are the two that decide your number.
Buyers often lump every cheque into one pile, but the deposit you hand over when an offer is accepted — often around 5% of the price in the GTA — is not an extra cost at all: it is credited toward your down payment and purchase price on closing day. The cash problem is one of timing, not totals: the deposit is due within about 24 hours of acceptance, weeks before the closing costs in this guide come due, and it usually cannot come from the mortgage either. Plan for two separate cash moments — deposit day and closing day — each with its own money already sitting in your account.
Three habits separate buyers who close calmly from buyers who scramble. First, budget closing costs as their own savings goal beside the down payment — the money cannot come from the mortgage. Second, if you are buying new construction, get the levies schedule from the builder's agreement reviewed by your lawyer before the cooling-off period ends; capped versus uncapped levies is a five-figure distinction. Third, keep a small buffer beyond the estimate: adjustments for taxes, fuel, and condo fees depend on the seller's payment schedule, which you will not know until the statement of adjustments arrives a few days before closing. The closing costs calculator itemizes all of this with Ontario defaults you can edit line by line, and the CMHC guide explains the premium behind the PST line in full.
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