Search this question and you will be told to budget somewhere between one and a half and four per cent of thepurchase price. Nobody who writes that sentence can show you where the figure comes from, because Ontario closing costs are not one thing. Some of them are set by statute and you can know them to the cent right now. The rest are quoted by private businesses and vary by who you hire.
This article keeps those two groups apart, which is the only honest way to answer the question.
The part that is fixed by law
These do not depend on who you hire or what you negotiate. They are the same for everyone buying the same way.
Registering the transfer
Ontario's land registration fees were last adjusted on 2 November 2026. Registering a transfer electronically costs $72.75 in statutory fees plus $12.10 under the Electronic Land Registration Services Act and $1.57 of HST on that second portion only, for a total of $86.42.
| Service | Statutory | ELRSA | HST | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Register a transfer electronically | $72.75 | $12.10 | $1.57 | $86.42 |
| Copy of parcel register (first page included) | $9.70 | $24.25 | $3.15 | $37.10 |
| Writ search, per name, non-key enforcement office | $13.30 | $3.65 | $0.47 | $17.42 |
Your lawyer pays these on your behalf and passes them through on the statement of adjustments. Registering the transfer, pulling the parcel register and running one writ search comes to $141 at the fees in force. A guide that tells you to budget thousands for "disbursements" is not describing these.
Land transfer tax
This is the big one, and it is the reason the total is dominated by the price rather than by your choice of lawyer. Ontario charges a marginal tax that begins at 0.5% on the portion of the price up to and including $55,000 and reaches 2.0% on the portion above $400,000. A home inside the City of Toronto pays a second, municipal land transfer tax on top. First-time buyers can recover up to $4,000 of the provincial tax.
We have set out both bracket tables, the Toronto bands amended in December 2025, and worked examples in a separate guide: Ontario land transfer tax: what you actually pay. It is the single largest closing cost for almost every buyer, so it is worth reading before you budget for anything else on this page.
A condominium status certificate
If you are buying a condominium, your lawyer orders a status certificate from the corporation. Ontario caps what the corporation may charge: a condominium corporation may not charge more than $100 for a status certificate, inclusive of all applicable taxes, under section 18(2) of Ontario Regulation 48/01. If you are quoted more than that for the certificate itself, the excess is somebody's service fee, not the certificate.
Mortgage default insurance, and the part of it you pay in cash
Above 80% loan-to-value, your lender insures the loan and the premium is yours. It is charged as a percentage of the amount borrowed and is normally added to the balance, so it does not come out of your cash on closing — with one exception that does.
| Loan-to-value | Premium |
|---|---|
| Up to and including 65% | 0.60% |
| 65.01% to 75% | 1.70% |
| 75.01% to 80% | 2.40% |
| 80.01% to 85% | 2.80% |
| 85.01% to 90% | 3.10% |
| 90.01% to 95% | 4.00% (4.50% with a non-traditional down payment) |
The exception is the sales tax. CMHC states that its insurance premiums are subject to provincial sales tax in Ontario and that the tax cannot be added to the loan amount, and Ontario applies 8% retail sales tax to premiums paid under taxable insurance contracts. So the premium goes on the balance and the tax on it is payable in cash at closing.
If you are not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
The Ontario Non-Resident Speculation Tax is charged at 25% and took effect on 25 October 2022. It applies to residential property anywhere in the province, not only the Greater Toronto Area, and it is charged in addition to land transfer tax. There are rebates and exemptions with strict conditions, so this is a question for your lawyer before you sign, not after.
The part nobody can quote you in advance
Everything below is a price set by a business you choose. We are deliberately not printing a range for any of it, because we have no source for one and neither does anyone else who prints them. What we can tell you is what each item is, so you know what you are asking for when you call around.
- Legal fees. Your lawyer's own charge for the work, separate from the registration costs above. Ask for the fee and the disbursements as two numbers, because a single blended quote hides which half is actually fixed.
- Title insurance. A one-time policy most lenders now require. Priced on the value of the home and the insurer.
- Home inspection. Optional, and priced by the inspector and the size of the property.
- Appraisal. Ordered by the lender; sometimes absorbed by them, sometimes charged to you.
- Adjustments. Not a fee at all. You reimburse the seller for whatever they prepaid past the closing date — property tax, in a condominium the common expenses, sometimes fuel. The amount depends entirely on the closing date and what the seller paid in advance.
How to turn this into a number for your own purchase
Work it in this order, because it puts the knowable parts first:
- Calculate the land transfer tax from the bracket tables — provincial, plus municipal if the home is inside Toronto. For most purchases this is larger than everything else combined.
- Add the registration costs: $86.42 to register, plus the searches your lawyer runs.
- Add $100 for the status certificate if it is a condominium.
- If you are borrowing above 80% loan-to-value, add 8% of the insurance premium as a cash item, since the premium itself goes on the balance and that tax does not.
- Then, and only then, get real quotes for the lawyer, the title policy and the inspection, and add those.
The first four steps you can do today with no phone calls. The fifth is the only part that genuinely varies, and it is a far smaller share of the total than the percentage rules of thumb imply.
Where the price itself comes in
Because the largest line is a percentage of what you pay, the most effective way to reduce your closing costs is to buy well. That starts with knowing what the market is actually doing in the place you are buying — browse Toronto homes for sale, Mississauga homes for sale or Brampton listings to see where your budget lands today. And if you are selling in order to buy, your side of the arithmetic starts with what your home is worth.