Who pays land transfer tax — the buyer or the seller?

The buyer. It's collected by your lawyer or notary at closing (or billed by the municipality shortly after, in Quebec) and paid in cash — it cannot be rolled into your mortgage.

How much is land transfer tax on a $500,000 house?

It depends where you buy — roughly $12,950 in Toronto, $6,475 elsewhere in Ontario, $8,000 in BC, $7,650 in Manitoba, about $5,600 in Quebec, $7,500 in Halifax, $5,000 in New Brunswick or PEI, and only registration fees (a few hundred to $2,000) in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.

Do first-time home buyers pay land transfer tax?

In some provinces they pay less. Ontario refunds up to $4,000 and Toronto up to a further $4,475. BC waives the tax on the first $500,000 for homes up to $835,000. PEI waives it entirely for eligible buyers. Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offer no break on the tax itself.

Is there HST or GST on land transfer tax?

No — it's a tax, not a service, so no sales tax applies to it. (Newly built homes have GST/HST on the purchase price itself, which is a separate matter with its own rebates.)

← Learn

Land Transfer Tax in Canada — What You'll Pay in Every Province

Updated July 3, 2026

Most buyers budget carefully for the down payment — then get surprised by the second-biggest cheque they have to write at closing. Land transfer tax (LTT) is due in cash the day you take title, it can’t be added to the mortgage, and depending on where you buy, the exact same house can cost you $0 or $30,000+ in tax.

Run your own numbers in the land transfer tax calculator — below is how the system works and where the traps are.

The basics

Who pays — the buyer, not the seller. Your lawyer or notary collects it with your closing funds.
When — at closing (Quebec bills it a few weeks later — see below).
On what — usually the purchase price; Quebec and New Brunswick use the greater of the price and the assessed value.
Cash only — lenders won’t add it to your mortgage. On a $900,000 home in Toronto that’s roughly $29,000 of cash on top of your down payment.

Most provinces use marginal brackets, like income tax: each slice of the price is taxed at that slice’s rate, so the “top rate” only applies to the portion above the threshold.

Ontario — and Toronto’s double tax

Ontario charges 0.5% to 2.5% in marginal brackets (about $9,475 on a $650,000 home). Buy inside the City of Toronto and you pay a second, municipal land transfer tax on top — historically a mirror of the provincial one, but since April 1, 2026 Toronto’s rates above $3 million are much steeper, reaching 8.6% on the portion above $20 million.

First-time buyers get a refund of up to $4,000 from Ontario (covers homes to about $368,000) plus up to $4,475 from Toronto — a combined $8,475 if you buy in the city.

The practical takeaway many buyers miss: a home just outside Toronto’s boundary — Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering — pays half the transfer tax of an identical home inside it.

British Columbia — property transfer tax

BC charges 1% on the first $200,000, 2% to $2 million, 3% above that, plus a further 2% on the residential portion over $3 million. A $700,000 home costs $12,000.

Two generous exemptions:

First-time buyers — no tax on the first $500,000 if the home is $835,000 or less (worth $8,000), phased out entirely by $860,000.
Newly built homes — fully exempt up to $1.1 million (phased out by $1.15M), for any buyer who’ll live in it.

Quebec — the “welcome tax”

Quebec’s droits de mutation (universally nicknamed the taxe de bienvenue) uses brackets indexed every year — for 2026, 0.5% to $62,900, 1% to $315,000, 1.5% above. But municipalities can add higher rates above $500,000, and Montréal sets its own full schedule climbing to 4% on the portion above $3.1 million.

Unlike everywhere else, you don’t pay at closing — the municipality mails you a bill a few weeks after you move in (hence the nickname). Budget for it so the welcome isn’t too warm. There’s no provincial first-time-buyer break, though Montréal’s Home Purchase Assistance Program can refund the duties for eligible buyers of new construction.

The Prairies — cheap to nearly free

Alberta has no land transfer tax at all — just registration fees of $50 plus $5 per $5,000 of value (about $700 on a $650,000 home, plus a similar fee on the mortgage).
Saskatchewan charges a 0.4% title transfer fee — $1,600 on a $400,000 home.
Manitoba is the outlier: real brackets reaching 2% above $200,000, and no first-time-buyer rebate — $5,650 on a $400,000 home.

Atlantic Canada

Nova Scotia — deed transfer tax is set by each municipality (Halifax charges 1.5%). Since April 2025, non-residents of Nova Scotia pay a provincial 10% on top unless they move to the province within six months of closing — on a $500,000 home that’s $50,000.
New Brunswick — flat 1% of the greater of price and assessed value.
PEI — flat 1%, but eligible first-time buyers pay nothing.
Newfoundland and Labrador — no tax, just a registry fee of roughly 0.4% (plus the same on the mortgage).

The territories

Yukon charges only small flat fees (about $50–$650). The NWT and Nunavut charge modest per-$1,000 registration fees — a few thousand dollars at most.

How to plan for it

Find your number with the calculator before you set your budget, not after you’ve made an offer.
Add it to your cash-needed pile — down payment + LTT + legal fees (~$1,500–$2,500) + adjustments. The affordability calculator tells you the mortgage you qualify for; LTT comes out of your savings on top.
Claim your rebate at closing — in Ontario, BC and Toronto your lawyer applies the first-time-buyer relief right on the transfer, so you never front the money. Don’t leave it on the table.
Border shopping is legitimate — around Toronto especially, the municipal boundary is worth thousands.

This is general education, not financial advice. Rates and rebate rules change (Quebec’s brackets move every January; Toronto’s rates changed in April 2026) — confirm with your lawyer or notary before closing.