Help for first-time buyers

Saving a down payment is the hardest part of buying a first home. The government has a few programs to help. You can use more than one, and most of them work together.

1. Do you count as a first-time buyer?

Maybe, even if you've owned before. For the FHSA, the Home Buyers' Plan and the GST rebate, you generally count if you didn't live in a home that you, or your spouse or partner, owned during this year or the four years before¹⁶¹⁰.

Each program words its rule a little differently, and some provincial ones are stricter. Ontario's land transfer tax refund, for example, is only for people who have never owned a home anywhere in the world¹².

2. The First Home Savings Account (FHSA)

An FHSA is a savings account just for your first home. It mixes the best parts of an RRSP and a TFSA: what you put in lowers your income tax, like an RRSP, and what you take out to buy your home isn't taxed, like a TFSA²³.

• Who can open one. You live in Canada, you're a first-time buyer, and you're at least 18 (19 in some provinces) and no older than 71¹.
• How much. $8,000 a year, up to $40,000 in total².
• Missed a year? Up to $8,000 of unused room carries over to the next year, so you could put in as much as $16,000 in one year².
• The clock starts when you open it. You only get room from the year you open your first FHSA². Opening one early, even with nothing in it, starts building room.
• Taking it out. To take it out tax-free, you need a written agreement to buy or build a home, with a closing date before October 1 of the next year, and you must plan to live there within a year³.
• If you don't buy. The account can stay open for up to 15 years, or until the end of the year you turn 71⁴. You can move the money into an RRSP without paying tax right away³.

An FHSA can hold savings, GICs and investments. The GICs and savings chapters explain those options.

3. The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP)

The Home Buyers' Plan lets you take up to $60,000 out of your own RRSP to buy or build your first home, without paying tax on it⁵⁶. It's a loan to yourself: you pay it back into your RRSP over 15 years⁵.

• When you start paying it back. If your first withdrawal is from 2022 to 2028, repayments start in the fifth year after the year you took the money out. Take it out in 2026, and your first repayment year is 2031⁵.
• If you skip a repayment, that amount is added to your income for the year instead⁵.
• The same deadlines as the FHSA. You need a written agreement to buy or build before you take the money out, and the home must be bought or built before October 1 of the next year⁶.
• Fresh RRSP money. Money you put into your RRSP in the 89 days before you take it out may not lower your taxes⁶.

Both together. You can use the FHSA and the Home Buyers' Plan for the same home, as long as you meet the rules for each³.

4. The home buyers' tax credit

The year you buy your first home, you can claim $10,000 on line 31270 of your tax return. That takes up to $1,500 off your federal income tax⁷.

5. The GST rebate on a new home

If you buy a brand-new home from a builder, or build one yourself, you can get back up to $50,000 of the GST, or the federal part of the HST⁸⁹.

• How much. All of the GST on a new home worth up to $1 million. Between $1 million and $1.5 million the rebate shrinks: a $1.25 million home gets half. At $1.5 million or more there's no rebate⁸¹⁰.
• Who. You're 18 or older, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and a first-time buyer. It must be your main home, and you must be the first person to live in it¹⁰.
• When. You signed with the builder, or started building, on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031. The home must be mostly finished before 2036¹¹.
• Once in a lifetime. You can't claim it if your spouse or partner already has¹⁰.
• How to get it. The builder can take it off the price at closing. If not, apply to the Canada Revenue Agency, usually within two years of moving in or finishing construction⁹.
• Ontario. Ontario adds a rebate of up to $80,000 of the provincial part of the HST, with the same rules⁸.

6. Land transfer tax help

Most provinces charge a tax when a home changes hands. Some cut it for first-time buyers. Two examples:

• Ontario refunds up to $4,000 of the land transfer tax. You must never have owned a home anywhere, and you must move in within nine months. Apply within 18 months¹².
• British Columbia doesn't charge the property transfer tax on the first $500,000 of a home worth $835,000 or less, with partial help up to $860,000. You must move in within 92 days¹³.

Your lawyer, or notary in Quebec, can tell you what applies where you're buying and claim it for you. The closing cost calculator includes land transfer tax.

7. A longer mortgage

First-time buyers can get a 30-year amortization on an insured mortgage, instead of the usual 25 years¹⁴. That lowers your payment, but you pay more interest overall. Insured vs uninsured explains how it works.

8. A program that has ended

You may still hear about the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive. It stopped taking applications on March 21, 2024¹⁵.

Try it. The affordability calculator shows what your savings could buy, and the closing cost calculator shows what to set aside.

Want it on paper? The first-time buyer workbook has this course as a fillable PDF, with a worksheet after every chapter, including one to add up the programs you could use.