Vaughan has a TTC subway station, no municipal land transfer tax, and one of the GTA's lowest property tax rates — but detached homes average $1.4M. Run the real numbers for your situation.
For a detached home, renting is the stronger financial position for most people. Vaughan's ongoing costs are genuinely favourable — a 0.73% property tax rate is among the lowest in the GTA, and there's no municipal land transfer tax, saving roughly $24,475 on a $1.4M purchase compared to the same home in Toronto. The problem is price relative to rent: at an average detached price near $1.41M against roughly $3,100/month to rent a comparable house, buying does not break even against renting until around year 13 under balanced assumptions. Vaughan's condo and townhome markets are a materially different calculation — condos average about $540,000 and Vellore Village townhomes start near $850,000, which shortens the timeline substantially.
As of 2026, detached homes in Vaughan average roughly $1.41M, with a median around $1.4M. Condo apartments are far more accessible, averaging about $540,000 with a median near $580,000. Townhomes generally fall between roughly $950,000 and $1.2M. Prices vary sharply by community: Kleinburg commands the highest prices in the city with estate properties well into the millions, while Concord, Vellore Village, and parts of Woodbridge offer the more accessible entry points — Vellore Village townhomes start around $850,000.
No. Toronto is the only municipality in Ontario that charges its own municipal land transfer tax on top of the provincial one. Vaughan buyers pay only Ontario's provincial land transfer tax — roughly $24,475 on a $1.4M purchase. An identical purchase inside Toronto would cost about $48,950 in combined land transfer taxes. That roughly $24,000 difference is real money you keep at closing, and it is the single biggest structural advantage Vaughan has over buying in the city.
Vaughan's 2025 residential rate was 0.732687%, among the lowest in the GTA. For comparison, Toronto sits at roughly 0.754%, Richmond Hill at about 0.737%, and Markham slightly lower at around 0.700%. Brampton is far higher at roughly 0.96–1.03%. On a $1.4M home, Vaughan's rate works out to about $10,258/year, or roughly $855/month. The same assessed value in Brampton would run several thousand dollars more per year — a carrying-cost advantage that never goes away.
Vaughan is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Canada, and it is the only city in the 905 with a TTC subway station — Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the Line 1 terminus, which opened in December 2017. It offers large detached housing stock, York Region District School Board schools, low property taxes, and no municipal land transfer tax. The honest caveats: detached prices are close to Toronto's, most of the city outside VMC and Thornhill is genuinely car-dependent, and the subway terminus sits more than 30 km from Union Station, so a downtown commute is still long even with a one-seat ride.
On a $1.4M detached home with 20% down: $280,000 down payment, roughly $24,475 in Ontario land transfer tax, about $2,000 in legal fees, and $3,000–4,000 in title insurance and closing adjustments. Total cash needed is roughly $310,000. There is no municipal land transfer tax, which saves about $24,475 versus an identical Toronto purchase. Worth knowing: the federal changes that took effect in December 2024 raised the insured mortgage price cap from $1M to $1.5M, which means a typical Vaughan detached home now qualifies for a down payment below 20% — an option that did not exist at these price points before.