Updated September 2026.
An assignment sale is not really a sale, despite the name. It is a transfer of a contract from one buyer to another. You signed a purchase agreement, usually on a pre-construction condo, and before you take possession you pass that contract to someone else. They step into your position and close with the builder. You never take title.
In Alberta it is legal. Selling one is the hard part, and that is where most of the confusion sits.
Assignments are legal here
Section 154 of the Land Titles Act says a written contract for the purchase of land is assignable. The Real Estate Council of Alberta has said the same thing in plainer language: assigning a property is not illegal, and neither is flipping one. Nobody is doing anything wrong by trying to assign.
So why is it so hard to sell one
Four things get in the way.
- There is no standard assignment form in Alberta. Other provinces have one. We do not. Every assignment needs documents drafted by a lawyer for that specific deal, which adds cost and time before anyone has even seen the unit.
- Assignments cannot be listed on MLS. The Provincial Harmonized Rules do not allow it. This is the big one. That cuts you off from realtor.ca, from every brokerage site, and from every buyer saved search in the city. You are left selling to whoever you can reach on your own.
- Agents carry uninsured risk. REIX, the industry’s errors and omissions insurer, does not cover assignments. Plenty of brokerages will not let their agents touch them.
- The builder has a say. Most pre-construction contracts either restrict assignment outright or attach conditions: a window of time, a fee, or a right of first refusal that lets the builder take the deal back.
Builders are not all the same on that last point. Plenty do allow assignments and just charge for the extra paperwork, with $1,000 to $2,500 a common range. A few contracts go the other way and include a free assignment clause. That was always a selling feature rather than a favour, aimed largely at out-of-province investors, a lot of them from Ontario, who liked knowing they had an exit before they bought. It worked well enough that you still see those clauses today.
None of this makes an assignment impossible. It does mean the odds are poor and the marketing is weak, which is why so many of them sit. There is also the question of who is left buying. End users want to walk through the actual unit before they commit and an assignment rarely lets them, so you are mostly selling to investors, who are looking for a discount. With apartment supply above five months this fall (CREB, as of September 2026), that discount gets steep.
How the money moves
The mechanics are simpler than people expect. Take a $500,000 pre-construction unit as an example, with $40,000 already paid in deposits. If someone takes over the contract at a $20,000 premium, they reimburse your $40,000, pay you the $20,000 on top, and then close with the builder at the original $500,000. Your gain is the premium, less the builder fee, your legal costs and tax.
Whether anyone will pay a premium at all is the real question, and from what we see in Calgary right now, many assignments change hands at no premium or at a loss.
The tax nobody budgets for
Since May 7, 2022, every assignment of newly built or substantially renovated housing is taxable for GST purposes. The detail that catches people out is the deposit. By default GST applies to the whole amount the assignee pays you, including the money that only reimburses the deposits you already handed the builder, on top of your premium. There is one way out, and it lives in the paperwork: if the assignment agreement states in writing that part of the price is a reimbursement of your deposit, that part comes out of the taxable amount (CRA Notice 323). Leave the sentence out and you pay GST on money you never made.
Put that on the example above. With the deposit sentence in the agreement, GST applies to your $20,000 premium, so $1,000. Without it, GST applies to the full $60,000 the assignee hands you, so $3,000. Same deal, $2,000 apart, decided by one line of paperwork.
On the income side, CRA generally treats an assignment profit as business income rather than a capital gain, so it is taxed at your full rate.
If your instincts came with you from Ontario, two numbers are different here. Alberta has no provincial sales tax, so you are dealing with 5 per cent GST, not 13 per cent HST. And there is no land transfer tax in Alberta, which changes what the assignee is bringing to closing. Our guide to closing costs in Alberta has the full list.
We are not accountants and this is not tax advice. Talk to yours before you set a price, because what you clear can sit a long way below the number you negotiated.
You may still be on the hook
Assigning your contract does not automatically get you out of it. Many builder agreements keep the original purchaser on the hook if the assignee fails to close, unless the builder formally releases you in writing. So who you assign to matters as much as the price. If they cannot complete, the builder can come back to you, and you will have spent money to end up back where you started.
Where these usually come from
Almost every assignment question we get comes from the same situation. Someone bought a pre-construction condo in one of the newer Calgary developments, and then the completion date moved, or life changed, or the numbers stopped working the way they did on paper two years ago.
We know those buildings and we have sold in a number of them recently. Once you know what a unit two floors up closed for this year, you have a number to plan around.
What we can do instead
We do not take on assignment deals. What we have done, for dozens of people sitting exactly where you are, is help them find the route that ends in a real sale.
Rent it out and wait
If the timing is the only problem, taking possession and renting the unit buys you time. We will refer you to a rental management company we trust and step back. We do not manage rentals and we do not take a cut of that referral.
Find out what it is really worth
Before any decision, you need a number, and it is neither the price you paid nor what the builder is asking for the units it has left. It is what a comparable unit in that building sells for today, based on what has closed. Our monthly Calgary real estate market update gives you the city-wide picture, though a single building can move differently from the benchmark. Now and then that number is better than people feared. More often it is a harder conversation, but at least you are planning around a real figure instead of the one you have been carrying around in your head.
Take possession and list it properly
This is where most of these end up, and it is usually the strongest outcome. You close with the builder and the unit becomes an ordinary resale. That gets you the MLS listing, realtor.ca, professional photos, buyer agents walking their clients through, and offers from people who would never have found a private assignment deal. It costs you the closing, and it usually returns a better price and a cleaner deal than trying to move a contract nobody is allowed to advertise. Budget for the possession-day costs while you are at it, which we set out in our guide to condo closing costs in Calgary. Our seller’s guide walks through how we take a home to market.
This route only works if you can close. If you cannot, talk to your lawyer and a mortgage broker well before your possession date, while there is still time to act.
Frequently asked questions
Do I pay GST on an assignment sale in Alberta?
Yes. Every assignment of new or substantially renovated housing has been taxable for GST since May 7, 2022, at 5 per cent in Alberta. The taxable amount is the whole sum the assignee pays you unless the assignment agreement states in writing that part of it reimburses your deposit, in which case the deposit portion comes out. Your accountant should see the agreement before you sign it.
Is an assignment sale legal in Alberta?
Yes. Section 154 of the Land Titles Act makes purchase contracts assignable, and RECA has confirmed that assignment is not illegal. The obstacles are practical rather than legal.
Can you list my assignment on MLS?
No, and neither can anyone else in Alberta. The Provincial Harmonized Rules do not allow it.
Do I need a lawyer for an assignment?
Yes. There is no standard form, so the documents have to be drafted for your deal. This page is general information and not legal advice, and your lawyer should read your builder contract before you plan around any of it.
What does a builder charge to assign?
Where assignment is allowed, $1,000 to $2,500 is a common fee for the paperwork. Some contracts include a free assignment clause instead. Read yours early rather than late, because if assignment is blocked outright your realistic options are the ones above: complete the purchase, then either rent the unit or sell it as a resale.
Who pays the assignment fee?
Usually you do, as the original buyer, because the fee sits in your contract with the builder. You can build it into the price you ask the new buyer, but in most contracts the builder bills the person assigning. Check the clause early, including whether the builder has to approve the new buyer.
Do I still have to close if the new buyer walks?
Often, yes. Unless the builder has released you in writing, most pre-construction contracts leave the original purchaser liable if the assignee fails to complete. Check that clause before you agree to anything.
Holding a pre-construction contract you are not sure about? Send us a note and we will tell you what the unit is worth today, then walk you through the options, whether or not any of them involve us.