TLDR;

Most Toronto homeowners know the Vacant Home Tax exists. Far fewer know that the rate has tripled since it launched.

Here's the number that matters: the VHT rate is now 3% of your property's Current Value Assessment (CVA). Not 1%. Three. That means on a home assessed at $1,000,000, and remember, CVA is often lower than market value, the tax is $30,000. On a $1.5M assessment, it's $45,000. For some investors holding vacant condos, that's an entire year of rental income wiped out in a single bill.

And here's the part that trips people up every year: you don't have to be actually vacant to get hit. If you fail to file a declaration by May 22, the City automatically deems your property vacant. It doesn't matter if you've lived there for 20 years. No declaration = vacant = tax. Last year alone, thousands of homeowners got bills they didn't expect simply because they forgot to log in.

Payments for anyone deemed vacant are due in three instalments: September 15, October 15, and November 16, 2026. But the declaration itself — which prevents the tax entirely for occupied homes — closes May 22.

The VHT data doesn't break down by neighbourhood publicly, but the vacancy picture is clear when you look at where condo inventory is building.

The Bay Street Corridor, Waterfront Communities, and University area are seeing the heaviest condo inventory accumulation right now. These are the same neighbourhoods that attracted the most investor-owned pre-construction purchases between 2020 and 2022 — units bought at peak prices that now can't cash flow positively and are sitting empty while owners decide whether to sell, rent, or wait.

For buyers: the condo-heavy neighbourhoods downtown are where you have negotiating power right now. Motivated sellers, extended days on market, and the quiet pressure of an incoming VHT bill make for a very different conversation than you'd have in Danforth or The Beaches.

While some homeowners are bracing for VHT bills, first-time buyers are sitting on the most generous incentive stack Canada has ever offered in a single purchase window. Here's what's actually available right now — and how it stacks.

The Full Stack for a Toronto First-Time Buyer in 2026:

A couple buying a new build under $1M in Toronto right now, using the full stack, could be looking at over $100,000 in combined tax relief, savings room, and rebates. That's not a typo.

Here's the thing nobody warns you about with the LTT rebates: they have to be applied at the time of property registration. That's your lawyer's job at closing.

Except many lawyers don't flag it proactively. They're moving fast, you're overwhelmed, and if you don't specifically ask about the Ontario and Toronto Land Transfer Tax rebates before closing, they can get missed. Combined, that's up to $8,475 left on the table.

The good news: Ontario gives you 18 months to claim it retroactively if it was missed at closing. The bad news: most buyers don't know that either, so they never go back for it.

Same story with the federal GST rebate on new builds. Most builders will credit it at closing — but not all do automatically. You need to ask, confirm it’s on your Statement of Adjustments, and follow up if it’s not.

Before you sign anything: email your lawyer and ask specifically — “Will you be applying the Ontario LTT rebate, Toronto MLTT rebate, and federal GST rebate at closing?” That one email could be worth $58,000.

One more thing the headlines missed: the new Ontario HST rebate is being applied to the purchase price, not the assessed value. Developers are aware of this. Some are pricing new builds to absorb the rebate value into their asking price. Shop around. The rebate is real, but not every deal is passing the full saving on to buyers.

#TheListingThatCaughtOurEye

Last week, we spoke about Power of Sale. There's a one-plus-one bedroom condo currently listed at approximately $465,000 in Little Portugal under power of sale. On the surface it sounds like a deal. In context, it's a case study in exactly what we've been talking about all issue.

Little Portugal — bounded roughly by Ossington, Dufferin, Dundas, and Queen — is a genuinely desirable neighbourhood. Walkable, transit-connected, independent restaurant scene, close to Roncesvalles and Trinity Bellwoods. A 1+1 at $465,000 there would normally generate real buyer competition.

But this is a power of sale. The lender is selling, not the owner. That changes the entire dynamic. The bank's mandate is to recover what's owed on the mortgage — not to maximize sale price, not to wait for the right buyer, not to negotiate back and forth for weeks. They want it gone.

Power of sale doesn’t always mean a discount. But it almost always means a motivated seller with a hard timeline. In a neighbourhood like Little Portugal, that’s a rare combination.

What to know before you make an offer on any power of sale:

Search 'power of sale' as a keyword on Realtor.ca to find current listings. You'll only surface about a third of them that way — many aren't flagged publicly. A buyer's agent who specialises in distressed properties will have access to the rest.