Real estate answers for GTA buyers
Robin Patel answers the questions first-time buyers in the Greater Toronto Area actually ask. Every figure names the government source it came from and the date it was read, because these numbers change.
- Posts
- 35
- Topics
- 5
- Last updated
- November 8, 2026
Buying your first home
What is a minor variance, and who can object to one?
The zoning by-law says the deck is too close to the lot line. The Planning Act provides a way to ask for permission anyway, and the whole test for it fits in a single sentence.
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The driveway is shared. Is that written on the title?
Buyers are told to check whether something is on title. For rights of way that is the right instinct and the wrong test, because the statute does not make registration the thing that decides it.
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What does it mean when the house is being sold by an estate?
An estate sale is not a different kind of house. It is a different kind of seller, and the question that matters is whether the person signing has the authority yet.
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Does the seller have to fill out a disclosure statement in Ontario?
Buyers ask for the form because somewhere else it is mandatory. In Ontario the obligation sits on the agent rather than the seller, and it only switches on if the seller chose to fill one out.
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Does putting my parent on title mean we have to file a trust return?
This is not a real estate rule and no one at the closing table raises it. It is a tax filing question that arrives years later, created by a decision made in a lawyer's office on a single afternoon.
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Do I need to register my new home purchase with Tarion?
The obligation has been in force since the spring. The part that changes what a late registration costs you arrives on 1 January 2027, which makes this the quietest deadline in a new home purchase and one of the few a buyer can miss by doing nothing at all.
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Can I cancel a new freehold home purchase in Ontario after I sign?
A right that was legislated in 2024 and then delayed now has a commencement date. It lands in the middle of a GTA pre-construction market where buyers have spent years being told, correctly, that no such right existed.
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How do you choose a Gujarati-speaking REALTOR® in the GTA?
There are a number of Gujarati-speaking agents across the GTA. These are the things worth checking before you choose one, and how to verify them yourself.
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What is the minimum down payment for a first home in Ontario?
The thresholds changed in December 2024, and a great deal of advice still online is quoting the old ones.
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Costs and closing
How long does a lender have to wait before a power of sale?
Power of sale is the Ontario route, and the statute sets out the minimum intervals. Knowing which clock is running matters, because a borrower keeps a statutory right to cure the default right up to the sale.
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What happens if a condo owner does not pay common expenses?
A condominium lien is not an ordinary debt. It attaches to the unit, it outranks a mortgage registered years earlier, and it exists before anything appears on title.
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What happens to my deposit if the builder cancels the project?
Buyers assume a cancelled project means an automatic refund from the warranty programme. The provision that governs it never uses the word cancelled, and that difference decides the claim.
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What happens if the house I am buying has an open building permit?
The renovation is finished and the paperwork is not. What matters is whether anything has been registered against the property, because that is the part a new owner inherits.
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What happens to a rented water heater when I buy the house?
The equipment is in the basement and the contract is in the paperwork. One of them transfers with the house and the other one has to be negotiated, and a law change in 2024 moved only part of the problem.
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What should I do if a home I am buying has Kitec plumbing?
Most of what is written about this is about getting paid. That part is finished. What is left is a condition question, and it is answered during the condition period or not at all.
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Can I claim the enhanced HST rebate on an assignment?
An assignment produces a new agreement with a new date on it, which is exactly why buyers assume the window has been reset. The Canada Revenue Agency anticipated that and closed it.
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Why did a second property tax bill arrive a year after I bought my new build?
The bill is not a mistake and it is not a penalty. It is the tax you were always going to owe, arriving late and in one piece, with a challenge window that closes on a date printed on a notice most owners file without reading.
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Do I qualify for Ontario's enhanced HST rebate on a new home?
The relief turns on a signature, not a closing. A buyer taking occupancy in 2029 can still qualify, and a buyer who signs a week late cannot — which makes the date on the builder's paper the most expensive line in it.
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How much can condo fees go up in Ontario?
There is no ceiling in the legislation, and the board does not need the owners' approval to raise the fee. What there is instead is a paper trail that tells you an increase is coming, if you know which document to open.
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How much cash do you actually need on closing day in Ontario?
The down payment is the part everyone plans for. The land transfer tax and the sales tax on your mortgage insurance are the parts that surprise people three weeks before closing.
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How is property tax calculated in Ontario, and why is it not based on what you paid?
Multiply your purchase price by the municipal rate and you will get a number that is far too high. Here is why, and what to use instead.
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Markets and neighbourhoods
Happy Diwali from Robin Patel
A short note, on the night rather than about it. Thank you to every family who let us be part of the year, and a bright one to all of you.
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Who pays for the fence between my property and the neighbour?
Most people treat a shared fence as a negotiation with the neighbour. There is an actual procedure behind it, run by the municipality, and the result can end up attached to the property itself.
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What does it mean if the house is designated heritage?
Designation does not freeze a house. It names particular attributes and puts a consent step in front of work that would affect them, and the by-law itself is where you find out which ones.
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Do the new own-use eviction rules apply when I am the buyer?
Both routes are served on the same form, which is why the change is being read as applying to everyone. It does not. The distinction decides what a buyer owes a tenant, and when.
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How much notice do I have to give before raising the rent in Ontario?
Nothing about a rent increase is retroactive and nothing about it is quick. Two separate clocks have to clear before a new rent can begin, and the one most owners miss is the one that started before they thought about it.
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Can I raise the rent after I buy a tenanted property in Ontario?
A tenancy runs with the property, not with the seller. Whether you can move the rent at all turns on one date in 2018, and a buyer who checks it after closing has already bought the answer.
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Do I need a City licence to renovate a tenanted basement after I buy in Mississauga?
Mississauga has put a municipal licence in front of the renovation route, and the identical house with the identical basement tenant in Brampton or Caledon is not subject to it. The cost of the plan now changes at the city line.
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What changes when you buy a rural property in Dufferin County?
Most of what is different about a country property is not the drive. It is that the services a serviced town provides invisibly — water in, waste out — are now assets you are buying, with their own condition, their own lifespan and their own tests.
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What kind of rental property actually works in Oakville?
The question is not whether Oakville is a good investment market. It is which tenant you are buying for — because the four tenants Oakville reliably produces want four different buildings.
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Newcomers to Canada
Does Canada's foreign buyer ban end on 1 January 2027?
The date is quoted everywhere as though it were a deadline in the legislation. It is not in the legislation. And the two charges that actually decide what a purchase costs are not tied to it in either direction.
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We just moved to Canada — can we buy a home in Ontario yet?
Whether you are permitted to buy is a status question, and it is separate from whether a lender will approve you. Both have to be answered, in that order, and one of them takes months rather than an afternoon.
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Selling
The seller is signing under a power of attorney. What changes?
A power of attorney is not a general permission slip for a family member. It is a specific grant with its own conditions, and sometimes it has not taken effect yet.
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I am selling my Toronto condo — who files the Vacant Home Tax declaration?
Every Toronto residential owner declares occupancy every year, including owners living in the home. Selling does not end that obligation — it only changes who is allowed to file, and the default answer when nobody does is the expensive one.
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Is now a good time to sell my house?
The honest answer to the timing question is that it is the wrong question on its own. What matters is whether you are leaving the market, moving within it, or changing price bracket — and those three have different answers.
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Get each one on WhatsApp
Robin posts every new answer to his WhatsApp channel. No group chat, no phone number swapped — a channel you can leave whenever you like.
Ask Robin directly, in Gujarati, Hindi or English. If it is a question other buyers are asking, it becomes the next post.