Scarborough · OntarioNew to Canada

New to Canada and buying in Scarborough

Q: What transfer tax applies to a $778,289 purchase in Scarborough?

About $24,082 at the average, of which $12,041 is the municipal tax. It is paid in cash on closing (or, in Quebec, billed by the municipality afterwards) and cannot be added to the mortgage. An eligible first-time buyer recovers about $8,475 of it through the Ontario relief that applies here. Our land transfer tax calculator runs your own price.

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Quick scenario · Scarborough

On a $778,289 Scarborough home

Down payment

6.8% — 5% to $500K + 10% above

$52,829

Insurance premium

4.00% CMHC/Sagen/CG · financed

$29,018

Mortgage amount

At 4.19% · 30-yr amort

$754,478

ON + Toronto MLTT

Provincial closing cost

$24,082

Est. monthly payment

Principal + interest only

$3,669/mo

Assumes permanent resident status. A foreign national on a work or study permit owes $272,401 of Non-Resident Speculation Tax on this purchase as well, in cash at closing — see the section on it below.

The payment above uses a 30-year amortization. An insured file only gets one as a first-time buyer or on new construction, and property owned abroad in the last four calendar years ends that — at 25 years the same mortgage is $4,047/mo.

Illustrative only. Actual rate, qualifying amount, and premium depend on your file. A licensed advisor will give you the exact number for your file.

New-to-Canada mortgages in Scarborough — the local picture

Scarborough's average price was $778,289 in August 2026, across 326 sales. Newcomer files are ordinary files in Scarborough, from Agincourt to Malvern, and they fail for an ordinary reason: the page you read before this one priced a purchase for a permanent resident and you may not be one. What changes the arithmetic is not your credit history but your status: a permanent resident buying at Scarborough's $778,289 average price needs $52,829 down and about $82,660 in total cash at closing, while a foreign national on a work permit buying the identical house owes 35% in non-resident purchase tax — Ontario's 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax plus the City of Toronto's 10% municipal one — $272,401 — on top of it.

Scarborough (TRREB districts E04–E11) average selling price, TRREB Market Watch, August 2026. Source.

Written by the Mortgage Squad Advisors Editorial Team · Reviewed by Surrayya Afzal, Principal Broker, FSRA #M14001433 · Brokerage FSRA #13737 · Figures current to August 2026

All mortgages in Scarborough| New-to-Canada mortgages guide| Affordability calculator

PR min down

On insured mortgages

Work permit

5% min

Insurable to 95% LTV; lenders overlay more

Intl credit

90+

Countries via Equifax Intl

Languages in-house

15+

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New-to-Canada mortgages: Scarborough against the markets around it

The same arithmetic (5% to $500,000, 10% above, 20% over $1.5M) on each market’s own published figure. Rates do not change across the boundary; the price does, and with it the file.

Market	Price	Legal minimum down	vs Scarborough
Scarborough	$778,289 average	$52,829	—
Etobicoke	$1,049,793 average	$79,980	+$27,151
North York	$1,011,327 average	$76,133	+$23,304
East York	$1,159,397 average	$90,940	+$38,111

Each figure is that market’s own board release, as cited on its page. Illustrative arithmetic, not a quote.

Your status decides the file: three paths on the same Scarborough home

Your immigration status, not your credit history, is what changes the arithmetic. This is the whole difference on Scarborough’s $778,289 average.

Your status	Minimum down payment	Non-Resident Speculation Tax	Federal purchase ban	Insured amortization
Permanent resident	$52,829 (6.8%) — the federal tiered minimum	None. A permanent resident is not a foreign national.	Exempt outright — the Act does not apply to you.	25 years insured, 30 only as a first-time buyer or on new construction
Work permit (foreign national)	$52,829 at the insurer minimum — lenders commonly overlay more	$272,401 at closing — rebatable in full if you become a permanent resident within 4 years of registration	Exempt with 183+ days left on the permit and no more than one property bought	25 years insured, on the same two exceptions
Study permit (foreign national)	Capped by a $500,000 purchase price the local market does not reach	Applies in full, with no relief route available on this path	Exempt only with 5 years of filed returns, 244 days in Canada in each of them, and a price at or under $500,000	25 years insured

Down payments are the federal tiered rule applied to this market’s own average; the Non-Resident Speculation Tax column is Ontario’s statutory rate on the same figure. Individual lenders set higher down-payment requirements than the insurers do on non-permanent-resident files — that overlay is what we shop.

The same Scarborough house, two closing days

Take Scarborough's $778,289 average price and change nothing but the buyer's status. A permanent resident puts $52,829 down (6.8% — 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the rest), finances a 4.00% default-insurance premium of $29,018 into the mortgage, and brings $82,660 to the lawyer once you add $24,082 of land transfer and registration cost, the $2,321 of provincial sales tax on that premium — which cannot be financed — and roughly $3,428 of legal, title, inspection and adjustments. A foreign national on a work permit, insured to the identical loan-to-value at the identical minimum down payment, brings $355,061 — $272,401 more, and every dollar of the difference is NRST. Put a conventional 20% down instead, which is roughly where lender overlays on non-permanent-resident files tend to land, and the cash needed is $455,569: no insurance premium and no premium tax, but $155,658 of down payment sitting beside the same $272,401 of tax. The monthly payment is the smaller story — $4,047 against $3,340 in principal and interest at 4.19% over 25 years. The closing-day number is the one that decides whether the purchase happens, and it is the reason the single most valuable thing many work-permit buyers can do is wait for permanent residence rather than shop harder for a rate.

Sources: Ontario Ministry of Finance — Non-Resident Speculation Tax; federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. Which insurer accepts which newcomer file is set out on our new-to-Canada mortgage guide.

Building a Scarborough approval without Canadian credit

A thin or non-existent Canadian credit file doesn't have to stall a Scarborough purchase. Three paths work: an international Equifax or TransUnion report covering 90+ countries; alternative credit built from rent, utilities, telecom, and insurance payment history; and the banks' dedicated newcomer programs — RBC Newcomer Advantage, Scotiabank StartRight, BMO NewStart, TD New to Canada, CIBC Newcomer and National Bank's — none of which require established Canadian credit. We match your specific status — PR, work permit, or in-progress — to the lender most likely to say yes.

How a new-to-Canada mortgage works — the rules, the penalties and the paperwork that are the same in every city — is covered in full on our new-to-canada mortgages guide. This page keeps to what is different in Scarborough.

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New-to-Canada mortgages across Scarborough

From Agincourt to Wexford, the dominant property form in each pocket changes how a newcomer file is underwritten.

Agincourt

Detached and semi (1970s–80s freehold)

Solidly inside the insurable band, so 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the balance is genuinely available. Multi-generational buying is heavy here, and lenders vary widely in how they treat co-borrowers who will not live in the home.

Malvern

Townhouse, semi and freehold detached

One of the lowest price bands in Toronto and reliably insurable. Freehold townhouses under a common-elements corporation are a hybrid: title is freehold, but the monthly fee still counts against your debt-service ratios.

Guildwood

Detached (1960s, bluff-side)

Bluff-adjacent properties draw appraiser comment on slope stability and setback, which can attach a condition or an inspection requirement to an otherwise clean approval. Prices generally stay under the $1.5M ceiling, so insured financing remains available.

Birch Cliff, Cliffside

Detached (freehold), heavy infill rebuild · Detached bungalow (freehold), rebuild activity

Detached stock is where multi-generational households usually land, and lenders differ markedly on how many incomes they will combine on a single application.

West Hill

Post-war detached and rental apartment

Condominiums are the most common newcomer entry point, and the corporation is assessed alongside a file that may already be relying on international credit — the status certificate review is not a formality here.

Rouge

Newer detached subdivision

A builder purchase asks for a rate hold reaching final closing, which is a long commitment on a file whose Canadian credit history is still short.

Wexford

Post-war detached and semi

Consistently insurable stock with a large owner base that has held for decades, so renewals, refinances and HELOCs outnumber purchases. An equity take-out is capped at 80% loan-to-value, and that ceiling — not your income — usually decides the size of the draw.

Regional Ontario lenders we shop — alongside the Big-6 banks and national monolines:

Meridian DUCA Alterna Savings FirstOntario

Scarborough market

What Scarborough’s market means for your new-to-Canada mortgage.

Scarborough recorded 326 sales with a median days on market of days (TRREB Market Watch, August 2026). East Toronto — the GTA's most affordable detached entry point, deep newcomer and multi-generational buyer base, heavy first-time and self-employed flow.

Scarborough is Toronto's most affordable entry — and still pays Toronto's double land transfer tax

Scarborough's July 2026 average selling price, across TRREB districts E04 through E11, was $782,615 — meaningfully below the City of Toronto average of $1,010,836, and below several Durham municipalities that sit further out. That affordability is the market's defining feature. What catches buyers is that being cheaper does not make it cheaper to close: Scarborough is inside the City of Toronto, so a purchase here pays Ontario land transfer tax and Toronto's municipal land transfer tax, which roughly doubles the bill and is due in cash on closing rather than financeable into the mortgage. A comparable home in Ajax or Pickering pays the provincial tax only. First-time buyers can claim both rebates — up to $4,000 provincially and up to $4,475 municipally — and at Scarborough price points those two together can erase most or all of the tax, which is precisely why the rebate paperwork matters more here than in a market where the municipal tax does not exist. On the mortgage side, $782,615 sits comfortably under the $1.5-million insurance ceiling, so the tiered minimum applies: 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the balance, roughly $53,262 down, with the default-insurance premium financed onto the loan. First-time buyers and new-construction purchases can also use a 30-year amortization, which lowers the payment the stress test is applied against.

Second-suite income is what carries a lot of Scarborough files

Scarborough's housing stock and its multi-generational, newcomer buyer base mean a large share of local applications involve more than one earner and, very often, a basement apartment. Both change the qualifying math, and both have conditions. On rental income from a second suite, lenders take one of two approaches, and the choice can decide the file: a rental add-back adds a share of the gross rent (commonly around 50%) to your income, while a rental offset nets a larger share of the rent (often around 80%) directly against the property's carrying cost. The offset method is usually the one that makes a tight Scarborough file work. But the suite generally has to be a legal, retrofit-compliant second unit for a lender to count it at all — a non-conforming basement apartment that generates real cash for the owner may generate nothing at all on the application. On combined income, adding a co-applicant raises the qualifying ceiling but also brings their debts onto the file, and the ratios are tested at the stress-test rate for everyone on title. The practical order of operations is: confirm what the suite legally is before you budget the rent, then choose the lender by how they treat it, then run the ratios. Our GDS and TDS guide shows the full math.

An illustrative Scarborough file: the suite that counted, and the one that didn't

This is an illustrative composite built from the rules above — not a specific client, and not a guaranteed outcome. Two buyers shop the same Scarborough street at the same price with near-identical incomes. Both plan to rent the basement. One home has a legal second unit; the other has a finished basement apartment that was never brought to code. On the first file, a lender using the rental-offset method nets most of the projected rent against the carrying cost, the debt-service ratios clear, and the application funds. On the second, the income is simply not there to count, the ratios come up short at the stress-test rate, and the buyer either finds a larger down payment, adds a co-applicant, or moves down a price band. The homes looked the same in the listing. The lesson the example carries is that in Scarborough the status of the suite is a financing fact, not a renovation detail — and it is knowable before you make an offer. Every real file is assessed on its own facts.

FAQ

New-to-Canada mortgages in Scarborough — common questions.

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What does a new-to-Canada mortgage work out to on Scarborough's August 2026 average price?

Scarborough (TRREB districts E04–E11) average selling price, TRREB Market Watch put the Scarborough average at $778,289 for August 2026. For a new-to-Canada mortgage that makes the legal minimum down about $52,829 (5% to $500,000, 10% above, 20% over $1.5M). The same board counted 326 Scarborough sales in August 2026. Your own property and balance replace these numbers on the file.

How does Scarborough compare with Etobicoke, North York and East York for a new-to-Canada mortgage?

On each market's own cited figure, the legal minimum down is $52,829 in Scarborough against Etobicoke $79,980 (average $1,049,793); North York $76,133 (average $1,011,327); East York $90,940 (average $1,159,397). The comparison is the same arithmetic on a different price, which is why moving the search one municipality over changes the file before it changes the rate — lenders price the same product the same way across Ontario.

What transfer tax applies to a $778,289 purchase in Scarborough?

About $24,082 at the average, of which $12,041 is the municipal tax. It is paid in cash on closing (or, in Quebec, billed by the municipality afterwards) and cannot be added to the mortgage. An eligible first-time buyer recovers about $8,475 of it through the Ontario relief that applies here. Our land transfer tax calculator runs your own price.

What's the average newcomer file size in Scarborough?

Scarborough's average price is approximately $778,289, so the typical newcomer file we see here sits in the $661,546–$895,032 band. Your specific neighbourhood and property type can move that materially.

What does a new-to-Canada mortgage cost on a typical Scarborough home?

On Scarborough's $778,289 average price, a representative newcomer file at minimum down works out to about $52,829 down and roughly $3,669/mo (principal + interest at 4.19% over a 30-year amortization), plus about $24,082 in Ontario + Toronto land transfer tax. Your exact numbers depend on the property and your file — we run them precisely before you commit.

Why use a Scarborough mortgage broker for a new-to-Canada mortgage?

A local broker knows Toronto's property types and which of our 100+ lenders price newcomer files best in Scarborough — from Agincourt and Malvern condos to detached stock — and there's no fee to you on A-lender files. The regional lenders on that panel are listed under the neighbourhood table above.

Can I buy in Scarborough on a work permit?

Yes, on two conditions and with one large cost. The federal ban applies to residential property inside a census metropolitan area or census agglomeration, so you need 183 or more days of validity left on your permit at the date of purchase and you must not have bought more than one residential property. Financing is available: CMHC, Sagen and Canada Guaranty all insure a valid work permit to 95% loan-to-value, so the legal minimum down payment is the same $52,829 a permanent resident would put down, though individual lenders often require more. The cost is NRST at $272,401, which takes the cash you need at closing from about $82,660 to about $355,061.

Should I wait until I get permanent residence to buy in Scarborough?

If permanent residence is close, the arithmetic usually says yes. On the same $778,289 house, a permanent resident needs about $82,660 of cash at closing and a work-permit holder about $355,061 — a gap of $272,401 that is entirely NRST. It is rebatable in full if you become a permanent resident within 4 years of registration, so waiting is not the only route, but you have to find the money first and wait to get it back. Against that, waiting means whatever the market does in the meantime. We run both timelines with your actual numbers rather than arguing the principle.

Who regulates a new-to-Canada mortgage in Ontario?

Mortgage Squad Advisors is a licensed Ontario mortgage brokerage — FSRA (Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario) Brokerage Licence #13737. All advisors are licensed and FINTRAC-trained, and every recommendation follows FSRA's conduct and disclosure rules.

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