Builder Marketing Restrictions on Condo Assignments in Ontario: What You Can and Can’t Do

If you’re selling your pre-construction condo unit before the builder’s final closing — an assignment sale — you’re not just subject to ordinary real estate marketing norms. You’re also bound by whatever marketing restrictions the builder wrote into your original agreement of purchase and sale (APS), and in Ontario those restrictions are often stricter than most sellers expect.

Builders commonly limit how, and even whether, you can advertise a unit for assignment before they’ve formally consented to the deal. Ignoring these limits isn’t just a marketing misstep — it can be a breach of your original agreement.

This article covers what builders typically restrict, why, and how to sell an assignment without running into trouble.

Why Builders Restrict Assignment Marketing

Builders sell units in a building over months or years, often at rising prices as construction progresses. An assignor advertising a unit for sale — especially at a price below the builder’s current asking price for remaining units — can undercut the builder’s own sales program. Builders also have a general interest in controlling how their project, brand, and pricing appear in the market before the building is even finished. Restricting assignment marketing is one of the ways builder agreements protect that interest.

What’s Commonly Restricted

Often restricted:

• Listing the unit on MLS before the builder consents
• Using signage, yard signs, or building-identifying photos in ads
• Disclosing the purchase price or floor plan publicly
• Naming the building or project in a public listing
• Advertising before the builder has approved the assignment or the assignee

Sometimes still permitted, agreement-dependent:

• Private, word-of-mouth marketing to a realtor’s own client list
• Anonymized listings once consent is granted, without identifying the specific building
• Listings that omit price or unit-identifying details

Every agreement is different — treat this as a list of common issues to check for, not a universal rule that applies to every builder.

Where These Restrictions Come From

These aren’t government rules — they’re contractual terms the builder wrote into your specific APS. The exact restrictions, and any consequences for breaching them, depend entirely on the wording of your agreement, not a general Ontario-wide standard. Marketing restrictions in a builder’s agreement sit outside ordinary real estate advertising rules — they’re a private contractual limit layered on top.

Because these terms come from the builder’s own drafting, two purchasers in the same project who signed at different times, or who negotiated different terms, can end up with different marketing rules for what looks like the same kind of unit. Don’t assume your neighbour’s assignment experience tells you anything reliable about what your own agreement allows.

How Realtors and Lawyers Fit In

A realtor can help you find a buyer and manage the marketing process, but they can’t tell you whether your specific agreement permits a particular kind of advertising, and they can’t interpret or amend the contract terms — that’s legal work. Before listing an assignment, it’s worth having a lawyer confirm exactly what your agreement allows, since breaching a marketing restriction can put the whole assignment, and your deposit, at risk.

A Practical Checklist Before You List

• [ ] Pull your original APS and any assignment addendum and locate the marketing/advertising clause
• [ ] Confirm whether builder consent is required before any marketing begins, or only before the deal closes
• [ ] Confirm what identifying details — price, building name, floor plan, photos — you’re permitted to include
• [ ] Confirm whether private or discreet marketing is available if public listing is restricted
• [ ] Ask your lawyer to flag anything in the clause that could put your deposit at risk if breached
• [ ] Ask your realtor to confirm, in writing, that any marketing plan they propose stays within the agreement’s limits

Working through this checklist before your first ad goes out, rather than after, is the difference between a smooth assignment sale and a dispute with the builder over consent.

Frequently asked questions