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Scarborough is where a detached house in Toronto is still insurable

Here is the thing that makes Scarborough different from the rest of the City of Toronto: you can still buy a detached house here under the $1.5 million insured mortgage cap. That matters enormously, because above that cap mortgage default insurance is unavailable and 20% down becomes the legal floor. Below it, the tiered calculation applies — 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of the portion above — and a detached home becomes reachable with a fraction of the cash.

TRREB's September 2026 Market Watch puts average detached prices across Scarborough's districts between roughly $877,000 and $1,067,000. On a $950,000 detached home, the minimum down payment is $25,000 plus 10% of the remaining $450,000 — $70,000 in total. The same house priced at $1.55 million would require $310,000. That is the whole argument for looking east.

Scarborough is also genuinely freehold-heavy, which is unusual in Toronto. In TRREB's September 2026 numbers, detached homes made up the clear majority of sales in several Scarborough districts — 34 of 43 sales in the Agincourt North and Milliken area, and 35 of 52 around Woburn and Bendale. This is a market of houses on real lots, not a market of towers.

What does not change is the tax. Scarborough is inside the City of Toronto, so you pay both land transfer taxes.

Scarborough condos: the $500,000 line is the one to watch

Scarborough's condo stock is the most affordable in the City of Toronto, and in several districts the average sits below $500,000 — which puts you on a flat 5% minimum down payment rather than the tiered calculation. In TRREB's September 2026 figures the average condo apartment was $345,347 around Agincourt North and Milliken, $375,833 in the Rouge and Malvern area, $388,889 around Woburn and Bendale, and $421,150 near Kennedy Park and Birchcliffe.

At those prices a 5% down payment is in the $17,000 to $21,000 range, which is why Scarborough is where a lot of first-time buyers in this city actually get in. But a word of caution that has nothing to do with the mortgage rules: older Scarborough condo buildings can carry significant maintenance fees and reserve fund issues, and lenders do look at the building, not only at you. A high maintenance fee eats into the income a lender will let you borrow against. Bring me the status certificate figures early.

If you are buying your first home, read the first-time buyer page — both land transfer tax rebates apply here, and on an insured purchase a 30-year amortization is available to you, which stretches what you qualify for.

Land transfer tax in Scarborough: yes, you pay the Toronto one

This catches people out more in Scarborough than almost anywhere, because Scarborough was its own city until 1998 and still feels separate. It is not, for tax purposes. Every purchase here attracts the Ontario provincial land transfer tax and the Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax, both payable in cash on closing. Cross Steeles Avenue into Markham and the municipal tax disappears; it is one of the starkest closing-cost boundaries in the GTA.

First-time buyers claim both rebates. The Toronto municipal rebate is up to $4,475 and the Ontario provincial refund is up to $4,000, with no provincial land transfer tax on the first $368,000 of the price. Up to $8,475 back in total, usually credited by your lawyer at closing rather than refunded later.

The conditions are the same on both: 18 or older; occupy the home as your principal residence within nine months of the transfer; never have owned a home or any interest in one anywhere in the world; your spouse must never have owned a home anywhere in the world while married to you; and you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or become one within 18 months of the transfer.

Scarborough has one of the largest newcomer populations in Canada, and that worldwide ownership test is the one that most often decides eligibility. If you held a share of a family property overseas, you are out — worth checking rather than assuming. The new to Canada page covers how lenders handle newcomer files.

Renewing or refinancing a Scarborough home

If you bought a Scarborough house ten or fifteen years ago, you are holding substantial equity and you have options. Most lenders cap a refinance at 80% of the appraised value as a matter of standard practice, and that sets the practical limit on what you can access — whether through a refinance, a HELOC, or consolidating higher-interest debt into the mortgage. Financing a legal basement suite or a garden suite is one of the more common reasons Scarborough owners refinance.

At renewal, do not simply sign. OSFI does not expect lenders to apply the minimum qualifying rate to an uninsured straight switch — same loan amount, same remaining amortization, no new money — so moving your mortgage elsewhere often does not require re-qualifying under the stress test. Add to the balance or change the amortization and it is no longer a straight switch, and the stress test applies. A refinance is always stress-tested, at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%.

If you are thinking of breaking your current term early, know that the penalty is usually the higher of three months' interest or the interest rate differential — and which one applies, and how big the IRD is, depends on your lender's calculation method and the exact wording of your contract. I will read your commitment before telling you what it will cost.