Renting versus buying in Canada
Land transfer tax is provincial, and the Ontario scale is used here because it covers the largest share of Canadian purchases. It matters a great deal which province you are actually in. Alberta and Saskatchewan charge no land transfer tax at all. British Columbia runs 1% to 5%. And Toronto adds a municipal land transfer tax of roughly the same size again, so a Toronto purchase pays about double the figure shown above.
Canadian fixed-rate mortgages are compounded semi-annually rather than monthly, the half-yearly basis section 6 of the Interest Act permits a mortgage rate to be stated on, and this comparison applies that convention. The payment on a quoted 4.6% is therefore slightly lower than an American 4.6% would be. It is a real difference in convention, not a rounding choice, and it is why the monthly payment here will not match a US calculator fed the same numbers.
CMHC mortgage loan insurance is required by law on any loan above 80% of the price, at 0.6% to 3.15% of the loan depending on the loan-to-value band, and it is capitalised into the mortgage rather than paid up front. It is unavailable above a $1.5m purchase price, which is what forces a 20% deposit on an expensive home. This comparison does not include it; the mortgage calculator does, and the tool says so when your deposit would trigger it.
Municipal property tax rates run from about 0.3% in Vancouver to 1.7% in Winnipeg, so the 0.9% default is mid-range rather than typical of anywhere in particular.