Oshawa real estate guide 2026: market, neighbourhoods and what’s being built

At a glance: Oshawa is the GTA’s most affordable city in TRREB’s tables ($652,775 average in August), it charges no City development charges on downtown housing, and the GO extension being built through it adds two stations. The trade-off is the region’s highest tax rate.

Checked on 3 October 2026 against TRREB, municipal, regional, provincial and Metrolinx sources. Anything I could not confirm on an official page is left out or labelled.

Oshawa market snapshot: September 2026

Numbers below are for Oshawa, all home types, from TRREB’s September 2026 Market Watch. October data is due in early November; this page is updated monthly.

September 2026	Oshawa	GTA
Sales	125	5,040
Average price	$679,861	$1,006,409
Median price	$653,000	$860,000
New listings	448	16,500
Active listings	660	26,131
Months of inventory	3.6	4.6
Sale-to-list price	98%	98%
Average days on market	34	34
MLS® HPI benchmark (year over year)	$699,700 (-6.11%)	$917,600 (-4.65%)

How I read it: Under about 4 months of inventory, well-priced homes still sell close to asking. Sellers have leverage if the home is presented and priced to the right comparables.

Where to live in Oshawa

• Downtown / Urban Growth Centre: About 1,600 units in the pipeline and a future Central Oshawa GO. Entry-level condo buyers and investors.
• North Oshawa (Simcoe N / Windfields): Student rental demand near Ontario Tech and Durham College, plus new subdivisions.
• Thornton’s Corners: Future GO station area.

Neighbourhood notes are my professional view, not official data.

What’s approved and being built in Oshawa

Only projects with an official source are listed, with the exact stage each has reached. “Approved” means a planning decision; it is not a construction start. Where a building permit has been issued, that is the strongest sign a project is actually starting.

Project	What	Stage (official)	Transit
Bowmanville GO extension works in Oshawa	Simcoe St bridge; Thornton’s Corners and Central Oshawa stations	Under construction (bridge started Jan 2026)	Lakeshore East
1707 Ritson Rd N	66 affordable townhouses	Completion Dec 2026	—
416–448 Malaga Rd (Durham housing renewal)	417 units, 50% affordable	Not approved: public meeting Jun 2026	—
Downtown pipeline	About 1,600 units across several sites	Mixed stages	Future Central Oshawa GO

No Oshawa Centre residential redevelopment was found on an official page.

For a GTA-wide view of what is permitted and under construction, see the GTA developments tracker and mall and plaza redevelopments.

Transit: running today vs. coming later

• GO extension to Bowmanville: under construction (main contract Jan 2026), with new stations at Thornton’s Corners, Central Oshawa, Courtice and Bowmanville. Metrolinx has published no in-service date. Metrolinx
• Simcoe St rapid transit is at study stage (including a cable-car option).

Taxes and closing costs in Oshawa

2026 residential property tax rate: 1.575342% of assessed value (City 0.659196% + Durham Region 0.763146% + education 0.153000%). Official 2026 rates. Taxes are charged on MPAC’s assessed value, which is usually well below today’s market price, so ask for the property’s actual tax bill.

• Ontario land transfer tax applies (no municipal land transfer tax outside Toronto). First-time buyers can claim up to $4,000 back if they qualify. Ontario

Buying new? Read the Ontario pre-construction buyer guide for the 2026 HST rebates (up to $50,000 federal for first-time buyers, and Ontario relief on the provincial part).

For business owners and commercial tenants

Commercial corridors: Downtown (King / Simcoe / Bond), Simcoe St N, Taunton Rd and Ritson Rd N.

• Downtown: no City development charges on downtown projects, plus façade, building-code and conversion help. City of Oshawa
• Three improvement plans (brownfields, Harbour Rd, Wentworth St W) were extended to 31 Dec 2029.
• Region of Durham: the At Home Incentive Program (affordable housing, minimum 5 affordable units) is open, as is the Regional Revitalization Program. Durham Region

Looking for space or a business here? Find premises or buy or sell a business confidentially.

Schools in Oshawa: how to check rankings and boundaries

School zone is one of the first things Oshawa buyers search for, and one of the easiest things to get wrong. A listing that says “in the X school zone” is not a guarantee. Here is how I check it for clients before they offer.

Who runs the schools: English public schools in Oshawa are run by the Durham District School Board (DDSB), English Catholic schools by the Durham Catholic District School Board (DCDSB). French-language schools are run by Conseil scolaire Viamonde (public) and Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (Catholic).

1. Use the board’s own school locator with the exact address, not the listing description. Boundaries follow streets, and two sides of the same street can go to different schools.
2. Check results from two sources: EQAO publishes each school’s provincial test results, and the Fraser Institute ranks Ontario elementary and secondary schools at compareschoolrankings.org. Rankings measure test scores, not the whole school, so visit too.
3. Ask about “holding schools”. When a local school is full, new students in growing areas can be directed to a school farther away until space opens. This matters most in new subdivisions.
4. Programs have their own boundaries. French Immersion, IB, gifted and arts programs often draw from a different area than the home school, and some need an application.
5. Get it in writing before you waive conditions. Boundaries can change. Call the board’s planning or admissions office with the address, and keep the answer.

Want homes in a specific Oshawa school zone? Tell me the school and your budget. I check each home’s address against the board locator before I send it to you.

Selling or buying in Oshawa: how I would approach it

Selling: price against the homes a buyer will actually compare with yours (same type, condition and recent enough), not the area average above. Then work out what you would keep after the mortgage payout and costs.Buying: decide what matters more, existing transit or a project that is only approved, and check the stage of anything near the address before you firm up.

Read next: GTA developments 2026–2028: what’s approved and being built

General information about Oshawa, not a valuation, investment, tax or legal advice. Planning status and incentives change; confirm with the municipality before relying on them. Inderpal Sidhu, Salesperson · HomeLife Silvercity Realty Inc., Brokerage.

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Inderpal Sidhu, Salesperson · HomeLife Silvercity Realty Inc., Brokerage. Not intended to solicit properties or clients already under contract with another brokerage.