Every term in the agreement.

The words that appear in a pre-construction purchase, explained plainly. If your lawyer or the builder uses one you cannot find here, send it through the form and it gets added.

Agreement of Purchase and Sale (APS): The contract between you and the builder. Everything that matters — deposits, dates, caps, assignment rights, adjustments — is in it or its schedules. Read the schedules.
Adjustments: Costs the builder prepaid that you reimburse on closing: property tax instalments, utility connection fees, Tarion enrolment, development charge increases, and more. They appear on the Statement of Adjustments a couple of weeks before closing.
Assignment: Selling your agreement to someone else before closing. Requires the builder's consent, usually a fee, sometimes a share of the profit, and since 2022 carries HST on the assignment fee.
Cap (on levies): A ceiling in your agreement on how much development-charge or levy increase the builder can pass to you. Uncapped means you carry the increase between signing and closing.
Consideration: The price before HST. Ontario builders advertise HST-in prices with the standard rebate assigned to them; the consideration is the figure underneath, and deposits are often calculated on it.
Cooling-off period: Ten calendar days after a new condominium purchase agreement is received, during which you can cancel for any reason and get your deposit back. Freehold purchases have no statutory cooling-off — a lawyer-review condition does that job.
Deposit: Money paid to the builder on a schedule before closing. Counts toward your down payment. On freehold homes, protection is limited; on condos, deposits are held in trust.
Development charges (DCs): Fees the municipality charges a builder per new home to fund infrastructure. Whether increases pass to you depends on the agreement.
Firm: An agreement is firm when all conditions are waived or satisfied. From that point you are bound to close.
First-time home buyer: For most programs: someone who has not owned a home they lived in during the current year or the previous four. Every buyer on title usually has to qualify.
GST/HST new housing rebate: The standard rebate on a new home: federal portion on modest prices, Ontario portion up to $24,000. Almost always assigned to the builder and built into the advertised price.
First-time buyer HST rebate: The 2026 measure: the full 13% of HST on the first $1,000,000 of consideration for first-time buyers, tapering to nothing at $1,500,000. Sits on top of the standard rebate.
Interim occupancy: On a condominium, the period between moving in and the building being registered. You pay the builder an occupancy fee, not a mortgage, and you do not yet own the unit.
Lot premium: An extra charge for a lot the builder considers better — corner, ravine, walkout, oversized. Paid before closing, not financed.
Mutual release: A signed agreement cancelling the purchase. Both sides walk away; deposit terms are negotiated.
Pre-delivery inspection (PDI): Your formal walk-through before possession, recorded on a Tarion form. Anything not written down is harder to claim later.
Statement of Adjustments: The lawyer's final reconciliation of what is owed on closing: balance of price, credits for deposits, plus every adjustment. Ask for it early.
Statement of Critical Dates: A Tarion addendum listing the builder's tentative and firm closing dates and how much notice they must give to move them. Delay compensation depends on it.
Stress test: Federal rule that lenders qualify you at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, not at the rate you will actually pay.
Tarion: Ontario's new-home warranty administrator. Covers deposits (to a limit), delayed closing (to a limit), and defects for one, two and seven years.
Upgrades: Finishes and options chosen at the builder's design studio at builder prices. Usually due in full before closing and not covered by the mortgage.
Walkout: A basement with a full-size door at grade, usually because the lot slopes. Makes a legal second suite much easier and is priced as a lot premium.