You are not required to have a real estate agent to buy a pre-construction condo in Toronto. Most buyers work with one anyway, because the builder pays the agent's commission out of its own marketing budget, so representation costs the purchaser nothing at the point of sale.
That payment structure is the part people usually misunderstand. A developer sets aside a commission allowance for cooperating brokerages long before the building goes to market, and the price list is the same whether you walk into the presentation centre alone or with a broker beside you. Buyers sometimes assume that going unrepresented earns a discount. It rarely does, because builder pricing is set centrally by the developer and its sales and marketing firm rather than negotiated unit by unit the way a resale purchase is. The money also moves differently from a resale deal, where the commission is deducted from the seller's proceeds on closing. That mechanic is covered in more depth in how real estate agents get paid in Ontario.
Timing matters more than most first-time purchasers expect. Nearly every Toronto builder asks you to declare your brokerage on your first visit to the sales centre. Once you have registered yourself as an unrepresented buyer, many developers will not let an agent be added to your file afterward. This is builder policy rather than provincial law, but it is applied consistently across the city, and it catches people who tour a site casually on a weekend and decide months later that they want advice.
It also helps to know who the people in the presentation centre work for. They are engaged by the developer, not by you. Under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, which took full effect on December 1, 2023, anyone registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario must provide the RECO Information Guide before offering services, and you are treated either as a client of a brokerage or as a self-represented party. A self-represented purchaser receives information about the building and nothing in the way of advice on whether the deal makes sense.
Whichever route you choose, a lawyer should review the disclosure statement and the agreement during the 10-day cooling-off period, and the deposit schedule deserves a careful read before anything is signed. Builders themselves are licensed by the Home Construction Regulatory Authority, and warranty coverage on a new condo comes through Tarion.
Related reading: What Does a Buyer's Agent Do in Ontario?, How Do Pre-Construction Condo Deposits Work in Toronto?, and What Is a Buyer Representation Agreement in Ontario?.
