Downsizing in Milton means selling one home and buying another, and both sides of that trade cost money. Here are the costs on a typical Milton move, worked out line by line, then what’s left over, and how that sits next to staying in your home with a reverse mortgage.
What does it cost to sell a Milton house and buy a condo?
Say a Milton homeowner sells a detached house at $1,149,000 and buys a condo apartment at $511,700. Those are the TRREB MLS® Home Price Index benchmarks for Milton in September 2026, released October 6, 2026: the price of a typical home of each type.
| Cost | The calculation | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate commission on the sale | 4% of $1,149,000 = $45,960, plus 13% HST of $5,975 | $51,935 |
| Legal fees on the sale | Estimate | About $1,200 |
| Ontario land transfer tax on the condo | Ontario’s brackets on $511,700 | $6,709 |
| Municipal land transfer tax | Milton has none | $0 |
| Legal fees on the purchase | Estimate | About $1,500 |
| Movers | Estimate | About $2,500 |
| Total | About $63,800 |
Illustrative only. Home values are TRREB MLS® HPI benchmarks for Milton, September 2026. Commission is negotiable; 4% is an assumption, not a Milton rate.
The commission is the biggest line by far. Nothing here includes painting, repairs before listing, storage, new furniture or the cost of overlapping closing dates. Those depend on your home and your timing.
How the land transfer tax is worked out
Ontario charges land transfer tax in brackets, as set out on ontario.ca: 0.5% on the first $55,000, 1% from $55,000 to $250,000, 1.5% from $250,000 to $400,000, and 2% from $400,000 to $2,000,000. On the $511,700 condo:
- $55,000 × 0.5% = $275
- $195,000 × 1% = $1,950
- $150,000 × 1.5% = $2,250
- $111,700 × 2% = $2,234
- Total: $6,709
Milton charges no municipal land transfer tax, so that’s the whole tax.
What if you buy a Milton townhouse instead?
The same move into a townhouse at Milton’s September 2026 benchmark of $603,200 costs a little more, because the land transfer tax is higher.
| Cost | The calculation | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Commission and HST on the sale | Same as above | $51,935 |
| Legal fees on the sale | Estimate | About $1,200 |
| Ontario land transfer tax | $275 + $1,950 + $2,250 + ($203,200 × 2% = $4,064) | $8,539 |
| Legal fees on the purchase | Estimate | About $1,500 |
| Movers | Estimate | About $2,500 |
| Total | About $65,700 |
Illustrative only, same assumptions as the condo example. TRREB MLS® HPI townhouse benchmark for Milton, September 2026.
How much money is left over after downsizing in Milton?
The sale price, minus the new home, minus the costs, is what’s left to live on:
- Condo move: $1,149,000 − $511,700 − $63,844 = about $573,500
- Townhouse move: $1,149,000 − $603,200 − $65,674 = about $480,100
That’s before paying off any mortgage or line of credit still on the house. If you owe $150,000, for example, the condo move leaves about $423,500. The money is yours outright, with no interest building against it.
Prices move both ways. TRREB’s Milton detached benchmark was down 6.46% from a year earlier in September 2026, and the condo apartment benchmark was down 5.10%. If both fall together, the gap between them, which is your money left over, shrinks too.
How does that compare with a reverse mortgage at the same age?
Say the same homeowner is 72 and stays. At 72, a reverse mortgage could provide up to about 54.81% of the home’s value. On the $1,149,000 benchmark house, that’s up to about $629,800 (54.81% × $1,149,000 = $629,767). It’s a ceiling, not a quote: the appraisal sets the real figure, and you never have to take the full amount.
The two routes are different in kind, so they don’t line up neatly:
| Downsize to the condo | Stay with a reverse mortgage | |
|---|---|---|
| Money available | About $573,500, yours outright | Up to about $629,800, as a loan |
| One-time costs | About $63,800 | About $2,000 to $3,500 |
| Interest | None | Added to the balance twice a year |
| Your home | A smaller condo, with condo fees | The same house and garden |
| Upkeep and tax | Smaller unit; fees cover some upkeep | Property tax, insurance and upkeep on the house stay yours |
| Home value changes | On the condo | On the house |
Illustrative only, using TRREB MLS® HPI benchmarks for Milton, September 2026. The reverse mortgage figure is the age-72 ceiling, not an offer.
With a reverse mortgage there are no required monthly mortgage payments. Interest builds on the loan, but growth in your home’s value often offsets some or all of it. If you stay, the amount repaid can never be more than the home’s value when the mortgage comes due, as long as you keep paying the tax and insurance and keep the house in repair. That promise is typically called the no negative equity guarantee, and every one of the four lenders includes it (Bloom uses its own name for it).
Both routes leave something for your family. After a move, it’s whatever you haven’t spent plus the condo. With a reverse mortgage, the house goes to your estate as usual: the lender never owns it, the balance is repaid from the sale, and what’s left goes to your heirs. Lenders give 180 to 365 days after the last borrower dies, depending on the product, and interest keeps adding during that time.
To see how a balance could grow on your own house, use the Milton reverse mortgage calculator. The full list of fees and rates is in what a reverse mortgage costs in Milton.
What new monthly costs come with a Milton condo?
Condo fees are the cost people forget. They’re a new monthly bill that a house doesn’t have, and they can rise over time. Fees vary a lot from building to building, so ask for the exact fee and how it has changed before you make an offer.
You also still pay property tax on the condo. Milton’s 2026 rate is 0.865146% of assessed value, so a condo with a lower assessment means a smaller bill. Milton property tax for seniors shows what different assessments pay and which programs can help.
Are condos and bungalows easy to find in Milton?
Not many come up at a time. TRREB’s Market Watch counted 10 condo apartment sales in Milton in September 2026, down from 17 a year earlier, with 81 active listings. Condo townhouses had 4 sales and 34 active listings. Detached houses, by contrast, had 63 sales and 275 active listings.
Most of Milton’s homes are houses. In the 2021 Census, Statistics Canada counted 56.7% of Milton homes as single-detached houses, and only about 10% as apartments. Just 13.2% of households lived in condominiums. And 73% of Milton homes were built in 2001 or later, in newer subdivisions.
The census doesn’t count bungalows on their own, so there’s no official number of them. If a one-floor house is what you want, expect a smaller choice than for condos or two-storey homes, and give yourself time to look.
Should you stay in your Milton home or move?
Both are fair choices. Moving makes sense when the house has become too much work, the stairs are hard, or you want to be near family or downtown. Staying makes sense when the house still suits you, your doctors and friends are close, and you’d rather spend money on renovations that help you stay or on care at home.
Richard weighs both paths with you by email, phone or video call, and your children can read along if you wish. You get a recommendation based on your situation, even if it’s not a reverse mortgage. Sometimes that’s a move.
The bottom line
Downsizing in Milton costs about $63,800 on a typical house-to-condo move, and the money left over is yours outright, with condo fees as a new monthly bill. Staying with a reverse mortgage keeps your home and its garden, but interest adds to what you owe. Both are fair choices, and Richard's advice starts from your situation, not from either one.
When you want a figure for your own house, start the free Milton estimate. Nobody will push you to go ahead.