Buyer's Guide
Intergenerational Home in Laval
Your parents are selling their house and want to move in with you. You picture a unit in the basement, a second …
A buyer compares two listings: a project home at $500,000 in a neighbourhood still being built, and a 1998 house at $520,000 in a neighbourhood that is finished. He concludes the gap is $20,000. If the new build price is quoted before tax, he is off by nearly $75,000. Here are the items that actually separate the two choices, and the question that settles it.
New build or resale: what differs on paper
Before preferences, there are rules. Six of them do not work the same way on the two markets.
| Item | New home from a builder | Home already lived in |
|---|---|---|
| TPS and TVQ | Payable on the price | No sales tax as a rule |
| GCR warranty | Yes, if the building qualifies | Whatever term is left, if any |
| Legal warranty of quality | Applies | Unless the sale is without warranty |
| Contrat préliminaire, 10 day withdrawal | Yes | No |
| Taking possession | Delivery date, revisable | Fixed in the promesse d’achat |
| Outdoor work | Often at your expense | Done, or to be redone |
The floor plan, the light and the neighbours get decided at the showing. Those six lines get decided at the cheque.
TPS and TVQ: the bill a resale does not carry
TPS, the federal goods and services tax, is 5% of the price, and TVQ, the Quebec sales tax, is 9.975% of the price before TPS, according to Revenu Québec, the provincial tax authority. On a new home sold at $500,000 before tax, that comes to $25,000 of TPS and $49,875 of TVQ, so $74,875. The Revenu Québec rebates target new housing or housing that has been substantially renovated: the home already lived in that you buy from its owner does not carry that line. Have your notary confirm your own case.
The rebates exist, but they run out fast.
| Rebate | Rate | Cap | Phases out above | Nil from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TPS, new housing | 36% of the TPS paid | $6,300 | $350,000 | $450,000 |
| TVQ, new housing | 50% of the TVQ paid | $9,975 | $200,000 | $300,000 |
| TPS, first home | 100% of the TPS paid | $50,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,500,000 |
Read that last column again with Greater Montreal new build prices in mind. At $500,000, both of the usual rebates are already nil. The home must also become your habitual residence, and you must be its first occupant.
The rebate for the purchase of a first home changes the order of magnitude, but it comes with conditions. Revenu Québec requires, among other things, a sale contract concluded after 19 March 2025 and before 2031, work started after 19 March 2025 and before 1 January 2031, substantially completed before 1 January 2036, and a transfer before that same date. Neither you nor your spouse may have claimed it already. It covers TPS only. In our example, an eligible first-time buyer recovers the TPS and still has $49,875 of TVQ to pay.
Put those amounts into the closing costs calculator before you compare two listings. That is where the $20,000 gap we started with changes its nature.
The warranty: a mandatory plan on one side, the Code civil on the other
On qualifying new construction, the plan administered by Garantie de construction résidentielle (GCR), Quebec’s new home warranty body, covers non-apparent poor workmanship for 1 year, latent defects for 3 years, and design, construction or soil defects for 5 years, on top of deposits, completion of the work and relocation before acceptance. GCR excludes, among other things, co-ownership with more than four stacked private portions, renovation, enlargement and self-building, and it requires written notice within a reasonable time, which it sets at 6 months. The detail is in the article on the GCR warranty at 1, 3 and 5 years.
On a home already lived in, it is article 1726 of the Code civil that does the work. The seller warrants that the property is free of latent defects that make it unfit for its use, or that so reduce its usefulness that you would not have bought it, or would not have paid that price. The same article sets the limit that loses cases: the seller does not warrant an apparent defect, one that a prudent and diligent buyer can detect without an expert. The conditions and the recourses are set out in the article on latent defects in Quebec.
One nuance often changes the comparison: the GCR plan is transferable and follows the building for whatever term is left. A two-year-old house is not new construction, but it still carries part of the 3 year and 5 year protections.
Buying before the house exists
When a builder or developer sells a residential immovable, built or to be built, to a natural person buying it to occupy it, article 1785 of the Code civil requires a contrat préliminaire, the preliminary contract, with a stipulation letting you withdraw within 10 days. When an information note must be given to you and is not handed over at signing, the period runs until 10 days after you receive it.
Article 1786 then says what that contract must contain: the delivery date, the sale price and, if the price is revisable, the terms of the revision. That last item is the one to look for first. A fixed price is only fixed if no clause provides for its revision. The withdrawal indemnity, where one is provided for, cannot exceed 0.5% of the agreed price.
The price freezes, the market does not. In August 2026, APCIQ counted a median price of $650,000 for single-family homes in the Montreal CMA, up 3% year over year, with 20,128 active listings, up 18%, and 2,853 sales, down 13%. In Laval, the single-family median reached $642,750, up 7%, with sales down 17% and listings up 21%. Inventory rising while sales fall does not tell you where the price is going. Nobody can tell you what your unit will be worth on delivery.
What the advertised price does not include
For the purchase of a new condo, CMHC recommends establishing clearly what is included in the price and what is not, amenities, finishing materials and utilities included, and looking for the less visible costs such as long term equipment leases. It also advises checking whether the contract lets the developer push back the occupancy date.
The warranty plan, for its part, covers the building. What sits around it gets budgeted separately. Ask in writing, before signing, who pays for the landscaping, the driveway, the fence, the light fixtures and the appliances. A new build price that compares well to a resale sometimes stops comparing well once those items are added up.
A finished neighbourhood or one still being built
Droits de mutation, the transfer duties known as the welcome tax, depend neither on the age of the building nor on the builder, but on the municipality. On a base of $650,000, the 2026 brackets give two results.
| City | Last 2026 bracket | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Montreal | 2% above $552,300 | $8,349.00 |
| Laval | 3% above $500,000 | $10,110.50 |
The taxable base is the highest of three amounts: the price actually paid excluding TPS and TVQ, the amount entered in the deed, or the market value, meaning the assessment roll value multiplied by the comparative factor, set at 1.03 in Laval for 2026. Hold on to the first one: on a new home, the welcome tax is calculated before sales taxes.
The new neighbourhood comes with unknowns that get verified rather than guessed: the infrastructure schedule, the zoning of the lots still vacant around you, school service and the date the building enters the assessment roll. The mature neighbourhood comes with trees, a transit network you already know and a roll that has settled.
New build or resale: the next ten years of budget
On a new build, the spending is concentrated at the start: the sales taxes, then the outdoor work. After that, the 1, 3 and 5 year protections run, then expire.
On a 1998 house, there is no sales tax, but there is a calendar. Roof, windows, water heater, siding, drain: each component has a service life and a due date that does not negotiate. The method for putting a number on that reserve is in the article on home maintenance costs in Quebec. A serious pre-purchase inspection turns that calendar into figures, and those figures belong in the comparison just as much as the TVQ does.
The question that settles it is neither the price nor the warranty. It is this one: by what date do you need to be housed, and what do you do if that date slips by six months? A lease is given notice months in advance, and the sale of your current property has a firm occupancy date. A construction site has a delivery date in the contrat préliminaire, and a warranty plan that provides for reimbursement of relocation in case of delay, which says a lot about how often the problem comes up. If your answer is “I cannot absorb six months”, a resale suits you better, however charming the model home.
Frequently asked questions
Does the advertised price of a new home include the taxes? It depends on the builder, and it is the first thing to have put in writing. Also ask whether the TPS and TVQ rebates are assigned to the builder: that changes who collects what.
I am buying new at $500,000. Am I entitled to the TPS rebate? Not to the usual one: it becomes nil at $450,000 for TPS and at $300,000 for TVQ. The rebate for the purchase of a first home may apply if you meet every Revenu Québec condition.
I am buying a two-year-old home from a private seller. Do I have a warranty? The GCR warranty follows the building for the remaining term of the protections. The legal warranty of quality under the Code civil applies on top, unless the sale is made without legal warranty.
Is the welcome tax calculated on the price with or without the taxes? Without. The base takes the amount actually paid excluding TPS and TVQ, unless the market value or the amount entered in the deed is higher.
To round this out, read buying new construction in Quebec and the welcome tax in Quebec.
Torn between a new project and a resale in Laval or Montreal? Write to me with both listings, and we will price out both scenarios all the way to the notary.
Georges Matar
Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.
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