First-Time Home Buyer Programs

The FHSA: the first account to open

The FHSA (First Home Savings Account) is the strongest tool on the list and the logical starting point. You can contribute $8,000 per year up to a lifetime maximum of $40,000 (as of July 2026). Contributions are tax-deductible like an RRSP, and withdrawals for a qualifying first home are completely tax-free, with nothing to repay. No other account offers both breaks at once.

Because contribution room only starts building after the account exists, the standard advice is to open an FHSA as soon as you think you might ever buy, even with $0 in it. If you never buy, the balance rolls into your RRSP without using any RRSP room, so the downside is minimal.

The Home Buyers' Plan: borrowing from your own RRSP

The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) lets a first-time buyer withdraw up to $60,000 per person from an RRSP tax-free to buy or build a qualifying home (as of July 2026). It is a loan from yourself: you repay it into an RRSP in equal instalments over 15 years, normally starting the second year after the withdrawal. Withdrawals made from 2022 to 2025 benefited from a temporary five-year grace period before repayments begin; withdrawals from 2026 onward are back on the normal schedule.

Miss a repayment and that year's instalment is simply added to your taxable income, so the plan is forgiving but not free. The real cost is the growth your RRSP money misses while it is out of the account.

The new First-Time Home Buyers' GST Rebate (new builds)

The newest and potentially largest program became law when Bill C-4 received Royal Assent on March 12, 2026. The First-Time Home Buyers' GST Rebate refunds 100% of the federal GST on a new home priced up to $1,000,000, a maximum of $50,000, and phases out on a straight line between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 (as of July 2026). On a $900,000 new build, that is $45,000 back.

It applies to qualifying agreements of purchase and sale signed with the builder on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031, with construction starting before 2031. The buyer must be at least 18, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and a first-time buyer, and the rebate can only be claimed once in a lifetime. It works alongside the long-standing GST/HST New Housing Rebate that applies to all buyers of new homes, topping it up to a full refund of the GST.

The Home Buyers' Amount: a $1,500 tax credit

The Home Buyers' Amount is a $10,000 non-refundable tax credit claimed on your return for the year you buy, worth up to $1,500 in federal tax savings (as of July 2026). It applies to almost any home, new or resale. Spouses can split the claim, but the combined total is still $10,000 per home. It is small next to the other programs, but it takes one line on a tax return, so do not leave it behind.

Land transfer tax rebates

Several jurisdictions refund part or all of the land transfer tax for first-time buyers. Ontario refunds up to $4,000 of the provincial tax, and Toronto adds its own rebate of up to $4,475 against the municipal tax, for combined savings of up to $8,475 (as of July 2026). British Columbia fully exempts first-time buyers on homes up to $500,000, with partial relief phasing out up to $835,000. Québec has no provincial rebate, though Montréal runs its own home-purchase assistance program. In most provinces your lawyer claims the rebate at registration, so you simply pay the net amount at closing.

Two smaller notes: 30-year amortizations, and a discontinued program

Since December 2024, first-time buyers and buyers of new construction can get insured mortgages with 30-year amortizations instead of the usual 25, which lowers each payment in exchange for more total interest; see amortization period for the trade-off.

One program you may still see mentioned online is the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, the federal shared-equity program where the government took a 5% to 10% stake in your home. It was discontinued in 2024 and no longer accepts applications. If a guide or calculator still features it, that content is out of date.

Who counts as a first-time buyer? It depends on the program

There is no single definition. For the FHSA and the HBP, you qualify if you did not live in a home that you or your spouse or common-law partner owned in the current calendar year (before the withdrawal or purchase) or in the previous four calendar years, so past owners can requalify after a long enough gap. The new GST rebate uses a similar four-year test but can only ever be claimed once. Land transfer tax rebates are typically stricter: Ontario and BC generally require that you have never owned a home anywhere in the world. Check each program's definition separately rather than assuming one answer covers them all.

Strategy: stack them, and double them as a couple

These programs are not either-or. Using the FHSA and the HBP together on the same purchase is explicitly allowed, and the GST rebate, tax credit and land transfer rebates layer on top. A sensible order of operations: open the FHSA early and fill it first, use the HBP for savings beyond that, then claim every rebate and credit at purchase time.

For a couple, almost everything doubles. Each partner gets their own $40,000 of FHSA room and their own $60,000 HBP limit, so two qualifying buyers can put $200,000 of registered contributions plus growth toward one down payment. The Home Buyers' Amount and the land transfer rebates apply once per home, not per person.