What is a tax sale property in Canada?

A tax sale is a municipal process where properties with unpaid property taxes are sold by tender or auction. In Ontario and Alberta, municipalities publish official notices in provincial gazettes. The minimum bid is typically the outstanding tax arrears — often a fraction of the property's assessed value.

How does LandHawk find tax sale properties?

LandHawk automatically scans Ontario and Alberta provincial gazette notices daily, extracts every tax sale parcel, scores it against its assessed value, and classifies it as a Real Deal, Caution, or Trap — before the tender deadline.

How much does LandHawk cost?

LandHawk starts with a 7-day free trial. A card is required to start the trial but nothing is charged for seven days, and you can cancel any time before then at no cost. After the trial the Investor plan is $49/month for same-day access to all listings plus full scoring, mapping, and flag detail.

Which provinces does LandHawk cover?

LandHawk currently monitors Ontario and Alberta tax sales, with Manitoba and Saskatchewan in progress. British Columbia and Nova Scotia are on the roadmap.

LandHawk — Canadian Tax Sale Property Monitor

Everything LandHawk does

Built for one job: separating parcels worth bidding on from the ones that look cheap and are not.

🔎Every notice, every week

Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan gazettes are scanned automatically. You never check a municipal website again.

📊A score on every parcel

Each listing is scored against its assessed value, so a 3% minimum bid and a 330% one are never sitting side by side unlabelled.

🚦Deals, cautions and traps

Three risk levels, assigned from the notice itself — not vibes. A trap is flagged with the clause that makes it one.

🔍Before You Bid investigation

Open any parcel for a full workup: what the notice confirms, a risk scanner, why it is cheap, title and tax position, and a due-diligence scorecard.

🛰️Satellite parcel maps

Where the notice carries a PIN, the exact parcel is resolved and shown on satellite imagery. Where it does not, you are told the pin is approximate.

🧮The arithmetic, done

The 20% deposit, Ontario land transfer tax, bid-to-assessed ratio and assessment-minus-tender spread — computed exactly, shown line by line.

📅Tender deadline calendar

Every closing date on one calendar. Click a day to filter to what closes then. Nothing expires on you unnoticed.

⚡Filters that match how you buy

Province, property type, maximum bid, risk level and closing window. Search by municipality or PIN.

🗺️Map view

Every active listing plotted and colour-coded by risk, so you can work a region instead of a list.

🏠Property type on every card

House, land, condo, waterfront, farm or commercial — labelled, badged and filterable.

✅A checklist that remembers

Each parcel carries its own pre-bid checklist. Tick items off, close the tab, come back — your progress is still there.

🛡️Labelled, never invented

Every figure is tagged VERIFIED, COMPUTED or CHECK BEFORE YOU BID. If the notice does not say it, LandHawk does not claim it.

Pennies on the dollar is real — and it is not the whole story

Minimum tenders genuinely land at a fraction of assessed value. On the board right now there are parcels opening at 3.5%, 13% and 15% of what the municipality assesses them at. That gap is real and it is why people bid.

But a cheap number is not a good buy. The same notices carry parking stalls priced above their assessed value, landlocked strips with no legal access, and lots you cannot build on. LandHawk exists to tell those apart — to show you where the discount is attached to something worth owning, and to name what the notice leaves out before you wire a deposit.

THE DISCOUNT IS NOT THE DEAL. THE PROPERTY IS THE DEAL.

One listing, fully worked

Here is the breakdown LandHawk generates automatically — a real deal beside a real trap.

Municipality of Trent Lakes

Lot 75 Plan 33 · PIN 28364-0259 · Peterborough County, ON

92.8

DEAL

Minimum tender$20,248

Assessed value$133,000

Bid as % of assessed15.2%

Deposit due at tender (20%)$4,049.60

Tender closes2026-09-09 (4 days)

Low-competition spread

Wide spread in a smaller market. Historically where real discounts occur — fewer bidders show up.

LandHawk analysis: At 15.2% of assessed value, this parcel sits well below the threshold where competitive bidding typically erodes the spread. The location — Trent Lakes, Peterborough County — is a recreational market with real waterfront demand, which supports the assessment. The four-day window is short. What the notice does not tell you: whether the lot is buildable, what arrears exist beyond the minimum, and whether legal road access is confirmed. Those are the three calls to make before Sept 9.

City of Vaughan — Parking Unit

York Region Standard Condominium · ON

TRAP

Minimum tender$3,295

Assessed value$1,000

Bid as % of assessed330%

Deposit due at tender (20%)$659

Tender closes2026-10-08 (33 days)

Over-assessed · Micro-parcel

Minimum bid exceeds assessed value. Assessment under $5,000 on a unit with no independent use or resale market.

LandHawk analysis: The minimum bid is 3.3× the assessed value. This is not a discount — you would pay more than the municipality thinks it is worth before closing costs and land transfer tax. A single parking stall in a condominium has no independent development potential and a thin resale market. The low dollar amount makes it look cheap. It is not.

We don't guess numbers

Other tools fill the gaps with confident estimates. Those numbers are invented. Acting on them costs real money at a tax sale.

Verified

Taken directly from the notice: minimum tender, assessed value, PIN, roll number, closing date. If it is not in the notice, we do not report it.

Computed

Arithmetic we can do exactly: the 20% deposit, Ontario land transfer tax, bid-to-assessed ratio. Every number shown is defensible line by line.

Check before you bid

Named, never estimated: accumulated arrears, occupancy, condition, road access, buildability. If the notice does not say it, we tell you to call the municipality.

Pricing

Every plan starts with 7 days free. One serious bid pays for a year of this.

🔒

You are not charged today. A card is required to start the trial, but nothing is billed for 7 full days. Cancel before the trial ends and you pay $0 — one click from inside your account, no phone call.

INVESTOR

7 days free

$49 / month after

For people who actually bid

Listings the day they publish
Before You Bid investigation on every parcel
Full flag detail — the clause behind every warning
Score breakdown and the arithmetic behind it
Filters by province, budget, risk, and property type
Closing-date calendar
Satellite parcel map in every listing
Cancel anytime

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