A builder price list looks like a menu. It is closer to a contract summary: every line is doing legal or arithmetic work, and the lowest number on the page is rarely the number a buyer pays. This catalogue stores each record’s pricing note and basis label alongside its from-price precisely because the headline figure is meaningless without them. Here is how to read the document, line by line, using records you can open.
1. The from-price is the cheapest door in, not the range
“From $679,999” means the least expensive unit in the release starts there — one floor plan, usually one lot type, sometimes one exposure. Maple Grove at River Mill in Cambridge is recorded from $679,999; that buys the Lilac interior unit on the builder’s rebate basis, not the release generally. When a record in this catalogue gives a range (towns from one figure, detached from another), both figures are on its page. When it gives one, assume a ladder above it.
2. The basis label is the price’s fine print — and most lists bury it
Of the 63 priced records in this catalogue, the price basis is labelled “unstated” on 22 and missing entirely on 2. That is the industry norm this site exists to expose: the same “$650,000” can be any of these different numbers:
| Basis label (as recorded) | Records | What the figure actually is |
|---|---|---|
| After rebate — enhanced | 20 | Net of the builder’s estimate of an enhanced HST rebate |
| After rebate | 9 | Net of the standard new-housing rebate estimate |
| Taxes included | 6 | HST already inside the figure |
| Net of HST | 1 | HST still to be settled on top |
| Tax-free guaranteed | 1 | Builder guarantees the rebate credit (Northside, Guelph) |
| After credit | 1 | Net of a builder credit applied on closing |
| Standard | 1 | The full price; any rebate is settled separately |
| Unstated / not recorded | 24 | The list does not say — ask before comparing |
The spread is not theoretical. Ivylea Towns Phase 3 is recorded at $1,162,000 with taxes included — and at $1,032,000 after the HST rebate where eligible. One project, two headline numbers $130,000 apart, both “correct.” Comparing two projects whose bases differ is comparing different currencies.
3. Credits and specials sit between you and the real list price
Marquis Modern Towns in Guelph is recorded from $559,900 — priced after the builder’s $40,000 Equity Boost credit on closing, against a $599,900 special price before the credit, which itself sits below the original list. Three numbers describe the same homes. A price list that leads with a credit has done the subtraction for you on its own terms: the credit may depend on closing on time, using a specific lender process, or the release. The record carries the note; read it before the number.
4. The deposit box is a schedule, not a number
Beside the prices, every proper price list carries the deposit schedule — the staged cheques between signing and closing. If the list you are holding has percentages, convert them to dollars on the unit you actually want (the worked examples are in our deposit comparison piece); if it has flat dollars, compute the percentage yourself. A list without a deposit schedule is a brochure, not a price list.
5. The incentives block changes the effective price, not the printed one
Decor upgrades, capped levies, free assignment, extended deposits — incentives in this catalogue’s records are stored as their own field because they belong to the deal, not the price. They expire, they are release-specific, and they are the first thing to disappear in a later release at the same printed price. Two identical from-prices in different releases are not the same deal if the incentive block shrank.
6. The date and the E.&O.E. are part of the document
Price lists carry “errors and omissions excepted” for a reason: they are snapshots. This catalogue stamps every printed price with the date it was last verified and withdraws it after 30 days unverified — Cadence’s deposit schedule on record is explicitly marked “E.&O.E. January 2026,” and its project page says exactly that. A price list with no date is a number with no provenance; ask when it was issued and whether a newer one exists.
7. What a price list never tells you
No price list prices the closing: HST settlement, land transfer tax, development levies and the rest sit outside it (we worked the fixed lines on a $700,000 purchase in the closing-costs piece). And no price list tells you availability — a plan can be listed, priced and fully allocated at the same time. The price list is the start of the verification conversation, which is why every figure on this site is one click from the record, the note and the date behind it.