What the advertised price on a new build actually means

A resale listing at $900,000 means $900,000. A new-build price at $900,000 means something more complicated, and the difference decides your deposit percentages, your rebate, and in some agreements your development-charge exposure.

Three prices, one home

Consideration is the price before tax. It is the number in the agreement's schedule of price, and the number every rebate is calculated on.

HST is 13% of the consideration.

The standard new housing rebate — federal on modest prices, Ontario up to $24,000 — is assigned by you to the builder as a condition of the agreement. The builder claims it from the CRA and, in exchange, does not charge it to you.

The advertised price is consideration plus HST minus the standard rebate. For any GTA home above about $450,000 of consideration, that simplifies to:

advertised = 1.13 × consideration − $24,000

Reverse it to find the consideration from a sticker:

consideration = (advertised + $24,000) ÷ 1.13

A $1,000,000 advertised home is a $906,195 consideration. A $750,000 advertised home is $684,956.

Why you should care

Deposits. Some agreements express deposits as a percentage of the purchase price, which may mean consideration. Five percent of $906,195 is $45,310; five percent of $1,000,000 is $50,000. Read the definition.

Rebates. The 2026 first-time buyer rebate is calculated on consideration, and it tapers above $1,000,000 of consideration — which is about $1,106,000 of advertised price. Knowing your consideration tells you which side of the line you are on. The HST rebate tool does this conversion for you.

Commission and referral disclosures. Co-operating commissions on new homes are almost always calculated on the net price. If you are ever shown a percentage, that is the base.

Assignments. If you later assign the agreement, the HST on the uplift is calculated between your consideration and the assignee's, not the advertised figures.

Rental purchases are different

If you are buying to rent out, you cannot assign the new housing rebate to the builder — you are not going to live there. The builder charges you full HST at closing, and you apply for the new residential rental property rebate afterwards. Same money, different timing, and it needs to be in your cash-to-close.

The ten-second version

Take the advertised price, add $24,000, divide by 1.13. That is what you are actually paying for the house. Everything else is tax and how it is routed.