How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Home in Ontario?
Commission is the big line, but it is not the whole bill: legal fees, mortgage discharge, prep, staging and moving all come out of the same proceeds. Worked through on an $800,000 example sale, the all-in figure lands in the tens of thousands — here is the full ledger.
The short answer
Commission is the big line, and it sets the scale of everything else. Work it through on one labelled example — an $800,000 sale, commission at 5% of the price (a common figure in Ontario, and always negotiable):
- Commission: 5% of $800,000 is $40,000 — and commission is a service, so 13% HST applies: $5,200 more, for $45,200 in total, paid out of the proceeds at closing.
- Legal fees: say $2,000 as an example, inside the typical range below.
- Mortgage discharge: a few hundred dollars, if a mortgage is being paid off.
On those numbers you are at roughly $47,500 before prep, staging or a single moving box — the all-in cost of selling lands in the tens of thousands on most Ontario sales, and the rest of this guide is the ledger, line by line.
Commission, the biggest line
Commission is typically around 5% of the price plus HST, and it is always negotiable — there is no standard rate your agent is required to charge. The total is usually split between your brokerage and the buyer's brokerage, which is how the agent who brings the buyer gets paid. On an $800,000 example sale it is $40,000 of the bill — everything else in this guide combined is usually smaller than this one line.
What that buys, and how the split between the two sides actually works, is covered in its own guide: how much does a realtor make on a $500,000 home sale in Ontario? Read it before you negotiate.
Legal fees and disbursements
You need your own lawyer to sell: discharging the old mortgage, preparing the transfer, and handling the buyer's funds all run through your lawyer's trust account. Sellers often pay $1,500–$3,000 all-in for a straightforward sale — the legal fee itself plus disbursements, the small out-of-pocket costs for registrations, searches and couriers, plus HST on the fee.
Uncomplicated is the operative word. A sale with a mortgage to discharge, a condo corporation to deal with, or a title problem to clear costs more than a clean freehold sale. You won't know the exact number until the final statement arrives just before closing — one more reason not to spend the proceeds to the last dollar in advance.
The mortgage lines
If there is a mortgage on the home, selling means ending it, and the lender charges for the paperwork: a discharge fee of a few hundred dollars is normal, along with the cost of registering the discharge on title. Small numbers — but they surprise sellers who assumed paying off a mortgage was free.
The bigger risk is timing. Closing a mortgage before its term ends — which is what most sales do — can trigger a prepayment penalty, and on a fixed-rate mortgage with years left to run that penalty can be one of the largest costs in the whole sale. It is also the most avoidable surprise in this guide: one phone call to your lender, before you list, gets you the payout figure and the penalty in writing. The mechanics are covered in mortgage penalties: the real cost of breaking your mortgage early.
Prep, staging and repairs
Everything you spend making the home ready comes out of the same pocket as the proceeds. The ordinary scale: a deep clean, a declutter, minor repairs and paint are hundreds to a few thousand dollars. Professional staging — furniture and styling brought in for the listing period — is typically a few thousand more. A pre-listing home inspection, which some sellers order, is a few hundred.
These are choices, not obligations, and the test is whether a dollar spent returns more than a dollar on the price. That test, applied line by line, is selling prep that pays back — and prep that doesn't.
Moving and the small stuff
Then there is the physical move: a truck and your own labour at one end of the scale, professional movers at the other — a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on distance and how much help you hire. Around it gather the small costs nobody budgets: utility and service transfers, mail redirection, final cleaning, boxes. Individually trivial; together, a few hundred dollars more.
If you are buying your next home at the same time, the two moves share a calendar but not a wallet — your purchase has its own separate closing costs, and the deposit on the new home is due well before this sale's proceeds arrive.
What sellers forget
- HST on the commission. The 13% is real money — $5,200 on the example above — and sellers who budget "5%" are budgeting short.
- The status certificate, for condos. Selling a condo, you'll usually order and pay for the status certificate the buyer requires — typically around $100.
- Capital gains — only if it isn't your home. The sale of your principal residence is generally exempt. A cottage, a second property or a rental is a different story, covered in its own guide: capital gains on a cottage or second property.
- Adjustments. Prepaid taxes and utilities are settled to the closing date by your lawyer — sometimes a credit back to you, sometimes a charge.
For contrast, the buyer's side of the ledger looks entirely different — land transfer tax, CMHC insurance and their own legal bill — set out in closing costs in Ontario, line by line.
The bottom line
On most Ontario sales the ledger is commission first and everything else after: roughly five percent plus HST to sell the home, a few thousand in legal and mortgage costs to close it out, and whatever prep and moving you chose to spend. None of it is knowable to the dollar in advance, but all of it is estimable — estimate it before you set your price, not after. The step that makes the arithmetic honest is the first one: know what your home is worth before you net anything out of it.
