Freehold Townhouse Markham Condo Fees: What Buyers Miss

The short answer

• “Freehold” refers to how you own the land and home, not to whether a monthly fee exists.
• Many Markham townhouse developments, especially newer ones with shared roads or common green space, are set up as common elements condominiums with their own monthly fee.
• The status certificate tells you the current fee, whether it is about to increase and whether a special assessment is coming.
• Ontario law caps the cost of a status certificate at $100 including tax and the corporation must provide it within 10 days of a request.
• Your real estate lawyer should review the status certificate before your conditions come off, not after.
• Comparing a freehold townhouse’s price to a fully freehold detached home without also comparing the monthly fee is comparing two different products.

Why a freehold townhouse in Markham can still have condo fees

Here is the scenario that catches a lot of buyers off guard. You find a freehold townhouse in Markham, maybe in Unionville or one of the newer pockets near Markham Village and the listing says “freehold” in bold. You assume that word means no monthly fee, full stop, the way it works with a detached house. Then your lawyer orders the status certificate and you learn there is a common elements condominium corporation attached to the property, with its own monthly charge.

This is not a mistake on the seller’s part and it is not hidden on purpose in most cases. It is just a structure that is common in the GTA and easy to misunderstand. The confusion sits in the word “freehold” itself: it describes land ownership, not whether any corporation is involved in maintaining shared spaces.

Freehold ownership versus a condo corporation, the actual difference

Freehold ownership means you own the building and the land it sits on, with no time limit and you answer to municipal bylaws rather than a board. A standard condo means you own the inside of your unit, while the corporation owns the building structure, hallways and grounds and charges fees for maintaining all of it.

A common elements condominium is a middle version built specifically for townhouse complexes. You own your unit and your lot as freehold, exactly as the listing says. Separately, a condominium corporation exists to own and maintain shared elements like a private internal road, visitor parking, a tot lot or landscaped common area. That corporation charges a monthly fee to every owner in the development, collects reserve funds for future repairs and can levy a special assessment if a big repair comes up that the reserve fund does not cover.

This is why two freehold townhouses in Markham, both freehold in the legal sense, can have very different monthly costs depending on whether a common elements corporation sits behind the development.

What the status certificate actually tells you

The status certificate is the single most important document for sorting out what you are really buying. Under Ontario’s Condominium Act, it has to include a set of specific items and the corporation must provide it within 10 days of a request, for a fee capped at $100 including tax.

• The current monthly common expense fee for the specific unit and whether it is in arrears
• Any recent or planned increase to the fee and the stated reason
• Whether a special assessment has been charged and why
• The state of the reserve fund and the most recent reserve fund study
• The corporation’s current budget, audited financial statements and auditor’s report
• Any outstanding legal judgments or ongoing litigation involving the corporation
• Certificates of insurance for the corporation’s current policies
• The corporation’s declaration, by-laws and rules, which may restrict rentals, pets, parking or exterior changes

A recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision found that a corporation could not collect a special assessment from an owner because it had not been clearly disclosed in the status certificate. That case is a good reminder that this document is meant to bind the corporation to what it discloses, which is exactly why it is worth a careful read rather than a quick skim.

Who orders it and when, in a Markham resale deal

Anyone can request a status certificate, but in a typical resale purchase it is usually ordered once an offer is accepted or while the agreement is still conditional, so there is time to review it and walk away if something is wrong. Who pays for it, buyer or seller, is a matter of negotiation and should be spelled out in the agreement of purchase and sale rather than assumed.

Your lawyer is the right person to review the full document, but as the buyer you should still read the plain-language summary they give you. Ask specifically about the monthly fee amount, any planned increase and whether a special assessment is mentioned anywhere in the budget notes or minutes.

Comparing the costs: freehold with no corporation versus freehold with a common elements fee

When you are weighing a freehold townhouse with a monthly common elements fee against one with none or against a fully detached freehold home, it helps to line the ongoing costs up side by side rather than comparing purchase price alone.

Cost item	Freehold, no condo corporation	Freehold townhouse with common elements fee
Monthly fee to a corporation	None	Set by the corporation’s budget, confirm the current figure in the status certificate
Property tax and insurance	Your responsibility alone	Your responsibility alone, separate from the corporation fee
Snow removal, shared road and visitor parking	Usually your own responsibility or a municipal service	Covered by the corporation through the monthly fee
Reserve fund for shared asset repairs	Not applicable	Built up over time by the corporation, reviewed through periodic reserve fund studies
Special assessments	Not applicable	Possible if the reserve fund falls short of a needed repair
Control over exterior changes	Full control, subject to municipal bylaws	May be limited by the corporation’s rules on shared elements

What this means for resale value and your offer strategy

A freehold townhouse with condo fees is not automatically a worse purchase than one without. Plenty of well-run common elements corporations keep fees modest and reserve funds healthy and the shared maintenance can actually save you the hassle of handling snow and landscaping yourself. The issue is only ever a surprise one, where a buyer budgets for a mortgage payment and property tax, then finds a few hundred dollars a month of fee on top that was not part of the plan.

Before you write an offer on any freehold townhouse in Markham, ask your agent to check the listing details for any mention of a common elements fee or condo corporation and confirm it directly with the listing agent. You can also search the Condominium Authority of Ontario’s condo registry to see if a corporation is registered against the address.

What to do next

If you are actively looking at freehold townhouses in Markham, do these things before you get attached to a specific home:

• Ask directly whether the development has a common elements condominium corporation and, if so, what the current monthly fee is.
• Request the status certificate as soon as you have an accepted offer and give your lawyer time to review it properly before any conditions expire.
• Ask about the reserve fund study and whether any special assessment has been discussed, even informally, at recent board or owner meetings.
• Add the monthly fee into your real budget alongside your mortgage, property tax and insurance, not as an afterthought.
• Compare a few similar Markham townhouse listings side by side, some with a corporation and some without, so you can see the real cost difference for yourself.

If you are weighing a freehold townhouse in Markham and want to know upfront which developments carry a common elements fee and which do not, reach out to me, Kirby Chan. I will walk you through the current listings and what each one actually costs to own month to month.