How to Renew Your Real Estate Licence in Ontario

You renew your Ontario real estate licence through RECO every two years. Before your expiry date, complete your continuing education (two RECO Update courses plus two electives), then submit the renewal application and pay the $350 fee through RECO's MyWeb portal. Insurance is billed separately each year. Miss the deadline and you cannot trade until you are reinstated.

One quick note on wording before we get into the details. Under Ontario's Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA), what most agents call a "licence" is officially a "registration" with the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO). RECO's own forms and portal use the word registration, so do not be thrown off when you cannot find the word licence anywhere in MyWeb. Same thing, different label.

What does renewing your licence actually involve?

Renewing a real estate licence in Ontario means renewing your registration with RECO, the provincial regulator. Registration runs on a two-year cycle. Before your expiry date you must complete RECO's continuing education requirement, which is two mandatory Update courses and two elective courses per cycle, then apply for renewal and pay the fee through MyWeb, RECO's online portal for registrants. The renewal fee for a salesperson or broker is $350 as of July 2026, per the RECO fee schedule. RECO sends reminder notices 60, 30 and 10 days before your registration expires, but the responsibility to renew on time sits with you. Professional liability insurance is a separate annual payment, not part of the renewal fee. If your registration lapses, you must stop trading immediately and apply for reinstatement.

That is the whole process in one paragraph. The rest of this article walks through each piece: the timeline, the education, the costs, the insurance quirk that trips people up, and what happens if you miss the date.

When do you need to renew?

Your registration is valid for two years, and your exact expiry date is shown in your MyWeb account. According to RECO's renewal page, reminders go out 60, 30 and 10 days before expiry, so you will not be blindsided as long as your contact details are current.

Here is the practical advice those reminders do not give you: the application itself takes minutes, but the education does not. If you are opening your first Update course ten days before expiry while juggling two closings, you have left it too late. Treat the 60-day reminder as your final warning, not your starting gun. Most agents who run into trouble at renewal did not forget the date; they forgot how long the coursework takes when real life is happening around it.

A sensible personal deadline is 90 days out: education done, application submitted, confirmation saved. Everything after that is buffer.

How do you renew? A step-by-step checklist

1. Log in to MyWeb and confirm your exact registration expiry date. Put it in your calendar now, with reminders at six months, three months and one month.
2. Check which education applies to you. Standard renewals need RECO's continuing education; first renewals need post-registration education instead (more on both below).
3. Complete the coursework well before expiry. For continuing education, you access courses through MyWeb under Continuing Education, then the My Training tab.
4. Review your personal information. Name and address changes carry no fee, but they should be accurate before you submit.
5. Complete the renewal application in MyWeb and pay the $350 fee (as of July 2026).
6. Save your confirmation and check that your registration status shows as renewed. Do not assume; verify.

What continuing education do you need?

For every renewal after your first, RECO's continuing education program requires four courses per two-year cycle:

• Two mandatory annual Update courses. RECO releases one each year, typically in January, covering legislation changes, industry standards and current best practices.
• Two elective courses chosen from RECO's catalogue. Topics include advertising compliance, commercial leasing, condominiums and environmental considerations, among others.

Because one Update course arrives each year, the smart pattern is to treat it as an annual habit: do the new Update course when it lands, pick up an elective in the quieter months, and renewal season becomes a formality. The advertising compliance elective is a genuinely useful pick, since RECO's advertising rules apply to everything you publish all year, not just at renewal time.

Your first renewal is different

New agents do not do the continuing education program before their first renewal. Instead, RECO's post-registration education applies: a mandatory compliance course on your legal responsibilities under TRESA, plus two electives chosen from five specializations (rural and waterfront properties, residential investment, commercial investment, co-ownership, and leaseholds).

Two things to know. First, these courses run through approved providers (Humber Polytechnic, Algonquin College, Fleming College and Career College Group), and each provider sets its own fees, so the cost is on top of RECO's renewal fee. Second, the deadline is firm: you must finish the post-registration phase within two years of registering, and completion is mandatory before RECO will renew you at the end of your first cycle. Waitlists and course schedules are outside your control, so book early.

How much does it cost to renew your licence in Ontario?

All figures below are from the RECO fee schedule and RECO's insurance renewal page, as of July 2026.

First-renewal agents should also budget for post-registration course fees, which vary by college provider. Averaged out, the predictable regulatory cost of staying licensed is roughly $675 per year (half the biennial renewal plus the annual insurance premium), before board dues, brokerage fees and marketing. These amounts belong in the same budget line as everything else it takes to run your business; if you are mapping the full financial picture, our breakdown of how much real estate agents make in Ontario puts them in context.

Is insurance part of the renewal? No, and this catches people

Your RECO insurance is a separate payment on a separate cycle, and confusing the two is one of the most common ways agents get suspended by accident. Renewal is biennial; insurance is annual, running September 1 to August 31 regardless of when your registration expires.

For the September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027 term, the premium is $500 per salesperson or broker, due August 14, 2026, according to RECO's insurance page. The plan covers errors and omissions, commission protection and consumer deposit insurance. Pay late and you are charged an additional $35 administrative fee; fail to pay by September 1 and your registration is suspended, which means you must stop trading entirely.

So even in a year when your registration renewal is not due, you still have an August insurance deadline. Two separate calendar entries, every year.

What happens if you miss your renewal deadline?

If your registration expires, you cannot trade in real estate. No showings, no offers, no commissions. Per RECO's reinstatement page, the path back depends on how much time has passed:

• Within 60 days of termination: complete any outstanding education, apply for reinstatement through MyWeb, and pay the fees ($400 plus the $44 MCE fee, as of July 2026).
• After 60 days: all of the above, plus a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check from your local police service.
• After 24 months: the window closes. You are treated as a brand-new applicant and must complete the full pre-registration program again.

RECO will also calculate any insurance premiums owing for the gap. Add up the extra fees, the police check, the days or weeks of lost business, and the awkward conversations with active clients, and the case for renewing early makes itself.

How to make renewal a non-event

The agents who never stress about renewal all do the same boring things: they book the Update course the month it comes out, they spread electives across the cycle instead of cramming, and they keep the two deadlines (biennial renewal, annual August insurance) in their calendar with real reminders. Renewal is one of those admin tasks that competes directly with client work, which is why it gets deferred; the more of your day-to-day follow-up that runs on rails, the easier it is to block out a week for coursework without your pipeline going quiet. That is part of the thinking behind CloseFlow, which keeps automated follow-up sequences and your email and text conversations moving in one inbox while you handle the parts of the business only you can do.

Check your expiry date today. If it is inside the next six months and your courses are not done, that is this week's job.