Seller's Guide

The Real Cost of Selling a House in Quebec

By Georges Matar · August 7, 2026 · 5 min read

Most sellers calculate their net proceeds like this: sale price, minus the mortgage balance, minus broker compensation. The number they get is almost always too optimistic.

Here is the complete list, in the order the costs arrive.

Before listing

The certificate of location. This is the most frequently forgotten item and one of the most expensive. The seller must provide an up-to-date certificate of location reflecting the current state of the land and buildings. If yours is more than about ten years old, or if work has been done since, the buyer or their notary will require a new one.

The suggested fee from the Ordre des arpenteurs-géomètres du Québec for a single-family home in an urban area is $1,630, plus taxes and disbursements (January 2026 guide), and each surveyor sets their own fees. Budget more for a plex or a complex lot. Land surveyor turnaround can exceed several weeks in busy periods. Check yours at the start, not the night before signing.

Repairs and preparation. Paint, minor repairs, deep cleaning, temporary storage. It is not mandatory, but it is the budget line with the best return on the list.

Staging. If you use a home staging service, packages range from a few hundred dollars for a consultation to several thousand for a full staging with rented furniture.

At the sale

Broker compensation. Often in the range of 4% to 5% of the sale price before tax, with GST and QST added on top. No rate is set by law in Quebec, and it is always negotiable. On $500,000, that is roughly $20,000 to $25,000 before tax.

It is the most visible item, and often the only one sellers anticipate.

At the notary

In Quebec the buyer chooses and pays the notary for the deed of sale. But the seller has notarial costs of their own.

The mortgage discharge. If you have a mortgage, it must be struck from the land register. That discharge is at the seller’s expense, generally a few hundred dollars.

Adjustments. You have probably prepaid your municipal and school taxes for the current year, possibly heating oil or condo fees as well. The notary calculates the portion attributable to the buyer from the possession date and that amount comes back to you. It is an adjustment in your favour, not a cost, but it changes your final tally.

Your lender

The prepayment penalty. This is the line that hurts most when it arrives without warning.

If you sell before the end of your mortgage term and do not port your loan to a new property, your lender applies a penalty. On a variable rate it is generally three months of interest. On a fixed rate it is the greater of three months of interest and the interest rate differential, a calculation that can produce figures in the thousands.

Call your lender before you list and ask for the exact penalty amount as of your expected date. Ask as well whether your loan is portable to a new property, which can eliminate it entirely.

Taxes

Capital gains. If the property sold was your principal residence for every year you owned it, the gain is generally exempt. You must still report the disposition on your tax return.

One important exception: since January 1, 2023, if you sell a home you owned for less than 365 consecutive days, the profit is treated as business income and fully taxable, and the principal residence exemption does not apply, unless the sale results from certain life events, such as a death, a separation or a move for work. See an accountant.

If it was not your principal residence, for example a cottage, an income property or a rental, a portion of the gain becomes taxable. The calculation depends on your situation and on the rules in force the year of the sale. Talk to an accountant before the sale, not after, because some decisions can only be made beforehand.

The plex case. If you are selling a duplex or triplex where you occupied one unit, the rental portion can generate a taxable gain and sometimes recapture of capital cost allowance if you claimed it. This is exactly the situation where an hour with an accountant costs less than the surprise.

The move

Often left out of the calculation: movers, temporary storage if there is a gap between dates, service connections, final cleaning, and sometimes transitional rent between the two properties.