Jul 6–10

Mon, Jul 6

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**HOOK**

If you're buying a new home in Ontario, you need to understand something important before you sign anything. The transaction you're walking into is fundamentally different from buying a resale home. And most buyers don't realize that after they've purchased.

Today we're going through six key differences between a new home purchase and a resale purchase in Ontario — so that when you sit down at that table, you know exactly what you're looking at.

**INTRO**

My name is Zachary Soccio-Marandola. I'm a lawyer here in Toronto. And I help people like you close real estate deals every single day. If you enjoy this type of content, make sure you subscribe and join our community. And if you have a closing coming up, we've built the most transparent legal fee calculator online — it gives you a full breakdown of every dollar you'll spend and even calculates closing costs like land transfer tax and title insurance. That's linked in the description below.

**Who Drafts the Agreement**

So let's start with the foundation — the Agreement of Purchase and Sale itself.

In almost all resale transactions, the APS is a standard form. It's drafted by the Realtors involved in the deal. It's a widely used, well-understood document. We as lawyers see it all the time. The clauses are familiar. The structure is predictable.

In a new home purchase, the agreement is drafted entirely by the builder's lawyers. And this is one of the most important things to understand going in — that document is written to protect the builder. Not you.

It's often long. It's often dense. And it contains provisions that don't appear in a standard resale agreement.

Now, this is exactly why having a lawyer review a new home agreement before you sign is so important. You need someone in your corner who can read that document and explain what you've actually agreed to.

**The Cooling-Off Period**

Now, in Ontario, there are rules around what happens after you sign a new home agreement — and they differ depending on the type of home you're buying.

If you're buying a new condo, you have a mandatory ten-day cooling-off period after signing. That right comes from the Condominium Act. During those ten days, you can rescind the agreement for any reason, get your deposit back in full, and walk away with no penalty. This is when buyers typically engage a lawyer to review the agreement.

If you're buying a new freehold home — a detached, semi-detached, or townhouse — there is currently no equivalent cooling-off period. That legislation is coming. Ontario passed the Homeowner Protection Act in 2024, which introduces a ten-day cooling-off period for new freehold purchases, but it has been delayed. As of now, set to come into force in 2027.

So in the meantime, if you're buying a new freehold home, the best practice is to have your lawyer review the agreement before you sign — not after. Because once you're in, you're in.

**HST**

Now let's talk about HST — and this is a big one that catches a lot of buyers off guard.

When you buy a resale home in Ontario, there is no HST on the purchase price. Simple.

When you buy a new home, HST applies. New home purchases are subject to thirteen percent HST under the federal Excise Tax Act. Now, there are rebates available — both federal and provincial — but those rebates have conditions attached to them. As of now in 2026, there were multiple new rebate programs introduced, with specific time limitations. I made a more in depth video about it here on my channel.

But here's what's important to know. Many builder agreements are priced assuming the buyer qualifies for and will assign their HST rebate back to the builder. So the purchase price you see in the agreement may already account for a rebate — which means if you don't qualify for it, you could owe additional money at closing. This catches a lot of buyers by surprise.

So one of the things we're looking at when we review a new home agreement is exactly how HST is treated in the price, who is entitled to the rebate, and whether the buyer's situation actually qualifies.

**Deposit Structure**

Now, the deposit structure in a new home purchase looks very different from what you'd see in resale.

In a resale transaction, there's typically one deposit. It's paid at the time of the offer or shortly after, and it's held in trust by the brokerage until closing. Straightforward.

In a new home purchase, the deposit structure is staged. Builders typically require a series of deposits paid over time — on signing, then at intervals of thirty, sixty, ninety days, and so on. By the time you reach closing, you may have made five or six separate deposit payments.

So understanding exactly how your deposits are held, and what happens to them if the builder doesn't perform, is another thing you need to be clear on before you sign.

**Adjustments**

Now let's talk about adjustments — and this is where a lot of new home buyers get surprised at closing.

In a resale transaction, the adjustments are relatively predictable. We're talking about things like property taxes and utility bills — prorated to the closing date. You can estimate these fairly accurately well in advance.

In a new home purchase, the adjustment schedule is a different animal entirely. Builder agreements typically include a long list of potential adjustments — development charges, educational levies, Tarion enrollment fees, utility connection costs, meter installation fees, and more. And the critical thing is that many of these numbers are not fixed at the time you sign. They're estimated. Or they're described as whatever the actual cost turns out to be at closing.

So while you know your purchase price going in, your true out-of-pocket cost at closing is genuinely uncertain. We've seen buyers surprised by tens of thousands of dollars in adjustments they weren't expecting.

When we review a new home agreement, one of the things we're doing is going through that adjustment schedule line by line — identifying what's capped, what's not, and what the realistic exposure looks like so you're not caught off guard.

**Closing Dates**

Now finally, let's talk about closing dates — because in a new home purchase, the closing date works completely differently than in resale.

In a resale transaction, the closing date is agreed upon, it's in the contract, and barring something very unusual, that's the day you're getting your keys.

In a new home purchase — especially a pre-construction purchase — the closing date is often an estimate. Builders typically have the right to extend closing unilaterally, sometimes multiple times, as long as they provide proper notice under the terms of the agreement. There are limits on how many times and by how much, but the point is that your closing date is not guaranteed the way it is in resale.

This matters for a lot of reasons. If you're selling your existing home and you've tied your sale to your new home closing, a builder delay can create serious problems. If you have a mortgage rate hold that expires, a delay can affect your financing. If you've given notice to a landlord, a delay can leave you without a place to live.

So going in, you need to understand what rights the builder has to move your closing date, what notice they have to give you, and how your other arrangements account for that uncertainty.

**SUMMARY**

Six differences — and every single one of them has real financial consequences. The new home agreement is a builder's document, and your job as a buyer is to understand what's inside it before you commit.

Make sure you have a lawyer review it before you're fully committed.

**OUTRO**

If you're enjoying these behind the scenes, real estate law videos, make sure you subscribe to the channel — I post a new video every week. And if you're a Realtor, I also send a weekly update about different legal situations that come up in our closings. That's our Realtor Newsletter and you can subscribe to it with the link down in the description. Thanks for watching.

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Buying a new home in Ontario is not the same transaction as buying resale — and the differences aren't small. In this video, Ontario real estate lawyer Zachary Soccio-Marandola walks through six key legal and financial differences that every new home buyer in Ontario needs to understand before signing anything. From the Agreement of Purchase and Sale to HST, closing date flexibility, and the adjustment schedule at closing, this is what the builder's agreement actually contains — in plain English.

Whether you're buying a pre-construction condo or a new freehold home, the builder's contract is written to protect the builder. Understanding what's in it — the cooling-off period rights, how deposits are structured, what adjustments you could be on the hook for, and what happens if the builder pushes your closing date — puts you in a position to close with confidence rather than a surprise.

Video Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:44 Who Drafts the Agreement
01:30 The Cooling-Off Period
02:22 HST
03:37 Deposit Structure
04:15 Adjustments
05:17 Closing Dates
06:14 Summary

This video is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Watching this video does not create a lawyer–client relationship. Real estate laws and procedures can vary depending on the facts of each case and the jurisdiction. Always consult with a qualified real estate lawyer in your area before relying on or acting upon any of the information discussed in this video.