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Alberta Closing Costs Calculator
Every national guide tells you to set aside 1.5% to 4% of the purchase price for closing costs. In Alberta that advice is not merely loose — it is wrong, and by roughly a factor of five, because the line it is mostly made of does not exist here.
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
Your purchase
The price in your purchase contract. In Alberta it sets only the Land Titles fee to register the transfer — there is no land transfer tax for it to drive.
Transfer registration C$600 · 110 started C$5,000 increments
Enter dollars or a percentage. What you don't put down is the mortgage, and Alberta charges a second registration fee on that principal — so more down trims a real closing cost.
C$110,000 of home price
Mortgage principal C$440,000
The comparison runs the same price through BC's Property Transfer Tax and Ontario's Land Transfer Tax. A condominium adds your lawyer's review of the estoppel certificate and reserve fund study.
Runs the same price through the BC and Ontario tax tables for contrast.
No condominium document review.
Closing costs, Alberta
C$3,490 – C$5,290
About 0.80% of the purchase price · all figures CAD
Why the national rule of thumb fails here
Almost every Canadian closing-cost guide tells you to budget 1.5% to 4% of the purchase price, and almost all of that figure is land transfer tax. Alberta does not levy one. Your total government charge on this purchase is C$1,090 in Land Titles registration fees, and your whole closing sheet comes to about 0.80% of the price. The national estimate is not slightly high in Alberta — it is wrong, because its largest line does not exist. The biggest number on an Alberta closing sheet is usually your lawyer.
The same C$550,000 purchase elsewhere
| Province | Transfer tax | You save |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | C$9,000 | C$8,400 |
| Ontario (outside Toronto) | C$7,475 | C$6,875 |
| Alberta | C$600 | — |
Alberta's figure is a registration fee, not a tax, and it rises linearly with price while both of the others rise faster. So the gap widens as the price goes up — it does not stay proportional. The Ontario figure is for a purchase outside the City of Toronto; inside the city the tax is charged twice and the gap roughly doubles.
Every line, itemised
Alberta does not levy one. This line is zero, and it is the largest single line on every other province's closing-cost sheet
C$50 plus C$5.00 per C$5,000 of value — the scale that changed on 20 October 2024
C$50 plus C$5.00 per C$5,000 of the mortgage principal, charged separately from the transfer
ESTIMATED — conveyancing is a competitive professional fee with no published schedule. On an Alberta purchase this is usually the biggest line on the sheet
ESTIMATED. Usually required by the lender
ESTIMATED. Alberta transactions commonly turn on a current Real Property Report with municipal compliance
ESTIMATED. Optional and advisable on a resale home
How the registration fee is worked out
Alberta's Land Titles Office charges C$50 plus C$5.00 for every C$5,000 of the land's value to register the transfer, and the same formula again on the mortgage principal to register the mortgage. Each started increment of C$5,000 is charged in full, so on C$550,000 that is 110 increments — C$600 — and on a C$440,000 mortgage, C$490. These rates changed on 20 October 2024 when the Land Titles Registration Levy raised the scale from C$2 per C$5,000 on transfers and C$1.50 per C$5,000 on mortgages to C$5 per C$5,000 on both. Most Alberta closing-cost pages still quote the old numbers and understate the fee by around 60%.
All figures in Canadian dollars. Registration fees are from the Government of Alberta's Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule, on the scale set by the Land Titles Registration Levy for submissions received on or after 20 October 2024, checked 21 August 2026. Alberta levies no land transfer tax — the fee schedule contains no such charge, which is the positive evidence for it. Comparison figures use the current British Columbia and Ontario tax tables. Legal fees, title insurance, the Real Property Report, inspection and condominium document costs are ESTIMATED.
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The missing line
Alberta levies no land transfer tax. Not a reduced one, not a rebated one — none. That single absence is why an Alberta closing sheet looks nothing like the one a mover from Vancouver or Toronto is expecting, and why a calculator that averages across Canada gives an Alberta buyer a number that is wrong in kind rather than merely in degree.
How we prove a negative
There is no page on alberta.ca that announces “Alberta has no land transfer tax” — governments do not publish pages about taxes they do not levy, and we are not going to pretend we found one. What exists instead is better evidence: the province publishes a complete Land Titles fee schedule covering every document you can register against a property, and there is no transfer-tax line anywhere in it. The schedule is the proof, and it is cited in full at the foot of this page.
What Alberta charges instead
Two Land Titles registration fees, on the same formula, computed on two different numbers:
Transfer of Land
C$50 plus C$5.00 for every C$5,000 of the land's value, plus C$15 for each additional title affected. This is the entire government charge for moving ownership from the seller to you.
Mortgage
C$50 plus C$5.00 for every C$5,000 of the principal amount, plus C$5 for each additional title. Note the base: this one is computed on your mortgage, not the price, so a larger down payment shrinks a real closing cost rather than just your monthly payment.
Each started increment of C$5,000 is charged in full, which is a small detail with a real effect: a C$502,000 purchase is billed on 101 increments, not 100.4, so the fee is C$555 rather than C$552. On a typical C$550,000 Calgary purchase with a C$440,000 mortgage, the two fees together come to C$1,090. That is the whole of what the Government of Alberta takes from the transaction.
Most Alberta cost pages are quoting 2024 numbers
The fee formula above is newer than most of the internet realises. Alberta's Land Titles Registration Levy changed the sliding scale for submissions received on or after 20 October 2024, raising it from C$2 per C$5,000 of value on transfers and C$1.50 per C$5,000 on mortgages to C$5 per C$5,000 on both. That is roughly a 60% increase on the variable part of the fee.
A great many Alberta closing-cost pages — including some run by brokerages — still show the old scale, and a few still describe the charge as a flat fee of about C$500, which it has never been. If a figure you find elsewhere is materially lower than the one above, check its date before trusting it.
What the difference is actually worth
Alberta's charge is a fee and rises in a straight line with price. The other two are marginal taxes and rise faster. So the gap does not stay proportional — it widens as you move up the market.
| Price | Alberta fee | BC tax | Ontario tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| C$400,000 | C$450 | C$6,000 | C$4,475 |
| C$550,000 | C$600 | C$9,000 | C$7,475 |
| C$1,000,000 | C$1,050 | C$18,000 | C$16,475 |
| C$2,000,000 | C$2,050 | C$38,000 | C$36,475 |
Alberta's column is the transfer registration fee only, excluding the separate mortgage fee. Ontario's column is for a purchase outside the City of Toronto — inside the city the tax is charged twice and the gap roughly doubles. Before any first-time buyer relief. Rates checked 21 August 2026.
There is a second Alberta advantage that comparisons almost never mention. CMHC charges provincial sales tax on its premiums in Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan only, and says that tax cannot be added to the loan amount — so in those provinces it is cash at closing. Alberta buyers owe none of it. On a C$400,000 purchase with 5% down, an Ontario buyer would need a further C$1,216 in cash purely on account of that tax.
So what is the biggest line?
Your lawyer. On a purchase where the government takes about a thousand dollars, conveyancing at C$1,500 to C$2,500 is the largest single item on the sheet, followed by a Real Property Report with municipal compliance if the deal calls for one. That inverts the usual Canadian advice about where to look for savings: shopping your conveyancer matters proportionally far more in Alberta than in a province where the tax dwarfs everything else anyway.
For the rest of the purchase, our Canadian mortgage calculator handles the payment, the CMHC insurance calculator works out the premium by loan-to-value band, and the Canadian land transfer tax calculator shows Alberta's zero against every other province. All free, all browser-side, no signup on any of them.
Compare provinces
Moving here, or moving away?
See what the same purchase costs where the tax does exist.
Methodology
Registration fees are taken verbatim from the Government of Alberta's Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule and confirmed against the province's own description of the Land Titles Registration Levy, both read on 21 August 2026. The fee is computed by rounding the value up to the next C$5,000 before dividing, because the schedule charges each started increment in full. Worked examples — including one on a price that is not a multiple of C$5,000, which is where a naive implementation goes wrong — are in src/lib/calculators/ca/alberta-closing-costs.ts.
What is ESTIMATED: legal fees (C$1,500–C$2,500), title insurance (C$200–C$500), the Real Property Report (C$300–C$500), inspection (C$400–C$700) and condominium document review (C$100–C$300). None is a government charge and no schedule is published for any of them. They match the bands our national Canadian closing costs calculator uses for Alberta, so the two pages cannot disagree.
The comparison figures for British Columbia and Ontario are computed from those provinces' current tax tables, cited on their own pages. Not modelled: GST on new construction, property tax adjustments, mortgage discharge fees, or the additional title charges that apply where more than one title is affected. All figures are in Canadian dollars. Nothing is collected or stored — the calculator runs in your browser and there is no form.
Sources
- Government of Alberta — Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule (Transfer of Land C$50 + C$5 per C$5,000 of value; Mortgage C$50 + C$5 per C$5,000 of principal) — checked 2026-08-21
- Government of Alberta — Register a land title document or plan (Land Titles Registration Levy raised the scale to C$5 per C$5,000 for submissions received on or after 2024-10-20) — checked 2026-08-21
- Government of Alberta — Transfer of Land information sheet (registration fee wording) — checked 2026-08-21
- CMHC — Mortgage loan insurance cost (premium rates by loan-to-value; PST on premiums in Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan only) — checked 2026-08-21
- CMHC — General requirements to qualify for homeowner mortgage loan insurance (5% on the first C$500,000, 10% above; insurance unavailable at C$1,500,000 lending value and over) — checked 2026-08-21
Frequently asked questions
Does Alberta have a land transfer tax?
No. Alberta is one of the few provinces that levies no land transfer tax at all. What it charges instead is a Land Titles registration fee, and the province's own fee schedule for registering a transfer of land contains no transfer-tax line of any kind — which is the positive evidence for it, since a government does not publish a page about a tax it does not have. The practical consequence is that the standard Canadian advice to budget 1.5% to 4% of purchase price for closing costs is wrong in Alberta, usually by a factor of about five, because the largest line in that estimate does not exist here.
What are Alberta's Land Titles registration fees in 2026?
Registering a transfer of land costs C$50 plus C$5.00 for every C$5,000 of the land's value. Registering the mortgage is a separate charge on the same formula, computed on the principal rather than the price: C$50 plus C$5.00 per C$5,000. Each started increment of C$5,000 is charged in full, so a C$502,000 purchase is billed on 101 increments rather than 100.4. On a C$550,000 home with a C$440,000 mortgage the two fees together come to C$1,090.
Why do other websites show lower Alberta land title fees?
Because they are quoting the pre-2024 scale. Alberta's Land Titles Registration Levy changed the fee formula for submissions received on or after 20 October 2024, raising it from C$2 per C$5,000 of value on transfers and C$1.50 per C$5,000 on mortgages to C$5 per C$5,000 on both. That is roughly a 60% increase on the variable portion, and a great many Alberta closing-cost pages have never been updated. Some also still describe the charge as a flat fee of around C$500, which it has never been.
How much do Alberta closing costs actually come to?
On a typical C$550,000 Calgary purchase with 20% down, roughly C$3,500 to C$5,300 all in — about 0.8% of the price. That covers C$600 to register the transfer, C$490 to register the mortgage, C$1,500 to C$2,500 in legal fees, title insurance, a Real Property Report and an optional inspection. The largest single line on an Alberta closing sheet is normally your lawyer, not the government. The same purchase would carry C$9,000 of Property Transfer Tax in British Columbia and C$7,475 of Land Transfer Tax in Ontario before any other cost.
Do Albertans pay PST on the CMHC premium?
No, and it is a second saving that comparisons usually miss. CMHC charges provincial sales tax on its premiums in Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan only, and states that this tax cannot be added to the loan amount — meaning that in those provinces it is cash payable at closing. An Alberta buyer owes none of it. On a C$400,000 purchase with 5% down, the CMHC premium is C$15,200 and an Ontario buyer would owe C$1,216 in cash on account of PST alone, where an Alberta buyer owes nothing.
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Back to the calculator ↑Alberta Closing Costs Calculator is built and maintained by the RealCostIQ editorial team. Cost ranges and rates are checked against published industry data and contractor quotes, and revised when the underlying figures move. Read our data methodology or more about who builds this. Every calculation runs in your browser — no account, and none of your inputs are stored.
Cost ranges and rates here are checked against contractor quotes and published industry data. If a number still looks off, email Support@RealCostIQ.com and we'll review and fix it.