When purchasing a new home, you not only have to consider the amount of cash you’ll need for your down payment, but also for your closing costs. Closing costs include all of the upfront costs associated with purchasing a home. In some provinces your closing costs will be significantly larger than other provinces due to land transfer tax. So, what are closing costs?
When purchasing a home, you should always do a property inspection. Check out our property inspection page for more details.
$400 - $800
When putting financing on a property, your lender will need an appraisal done. Check out our home appraisal page for more details.
$450 - $1,200
Everyone knows that lawyers aren’t cheap! Although a necessary cost, your legal fees incurred when buying a home are no different.
$1,500 - $5,000
If you are buying the home for your personal residence, you can put down as little as 5% for a down payment. When you’re putting down anything less than 20%, you will need to purchase mortgage default insurance. Check out our mortgage insurance page for more details.
Depending on the amount of your down payment, the cost of the insurance will vary from 2.8% to 4% of the purchase price.
Depending on the province that you’re purchasing in, this can be the largest portion of your closing costs. In provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan you’re looking at a couple hundred dollars in fees to register your property with Land Titles. If you’re in Toronto, you could be looking at up to 4% of the purchase price. Check out our land transfer tax page for more details.
You will be required to provide proof of insurance when signing the mortgage documents with your lawyer. Check out our property insurance page for more details.
$1,000 - $3,500 per year
The seller may have prepaid utilities and property taxes. If this is the case, your lawyer will calculate the amount owing for you to reimburse the seller.
Moving costs may include:
To take some of the weight off your shoulders, you may want to consider hiring professional movers.
Depending on the timing of moving and possession of your new home, you may need to store your belongings.
You might need to take a few days off for packing, moving and unpacking.
If you don’t want to have to deal with cleaning your old home at the same time as moving and unpacking, hiring professional cleaners is a good option.
You may want to budget for some new furniture to go into your new home.
If the possession of your new home overlaps with your old home, you may have double rent, mortgage, property tax, property insurance, or condo fees.
Ongoing costs for owning a home may include:
This will generally be your largest expense.
Be sure to have adequate coverage on your new home.
If you purchase a condo or townhouse you may have to pay these fees.
There are a few options for how these can be paid.
These can include electricity, water, gas, waste and recycling, cable and internet.
Depending on your neighborhood and how comfortable you are, you may want to consider this.
This is a tough one to budget for but Its a good idea to have a healthy reserve in case you need to spring for a new roof or furnace. Besides the big ticket items, you’ll usually need to spend at least a few hundred dollars per year in upkeep to preserve your investment.
