📖 First-time home buyer programs in Canada: the full stack

The full stack, in one table

First-time buyer help in Canada is not one program — it is a stack of them, run by two levels of government (three, if you count Toronto), each with its own cap and eligibility rules. Most buyers use two or three without ever seeing the whole list. Here it is, with the figures this site's calculators use:

The two savings programs do the heavy lifting

The FHSA and the HBP are the stack's foundation, worth up to $100,000 per person — $200,000 per couple — of tax-advantaged down payment. They differ in the one way that matters most for cash flow: FHSA money never has to be repaid, while every HBP dollar comes back out of your budget over 15 years ($4,000 a year on a maximum withdrawal). The FHSA vs HBP guide compares them properly — deduction timing, the 90-day rule, what happens if you never buy — and the two calculators (FHSA, RRSP HBP) turn the caps into your own numbers. Start the FHSA early even if the HBP looks bigger: FHSA room only accumulates once the account is open.

The rebates are smaller — and immediate

Ontario's $4,000 and Toronto's $4,475 land transfer tax rebates are easy to overlook next to six-figure savings programs, but they land on the one day your cash is tightest: closing. Together they can zero out the land transfer tax on a Toronto purchase up to about $368,000, and they are claimed through your lawyer in the closing paperwork — no separate application, no waiting for a refund cheque in most cases. Eligibility is stricter than the savings programs in one specific way: own a home anywhere in the world, ever, and you are out; buy with a spouse who owned while you were spouses and the rebate can shrink to your qualifying share. The city pages — Toronto, Brampton, and the rest — show the rebate applied at real local prices.

Do not forget the smallest one: the Home Buyers' Amount

The stack has a seventh member small enough to miss: the federal Home Buyers' Amount, a non-refundable tax credit calculated on $10,000, worth up to $1,500 off the taxes of a first-time buyer (it can be split between spouses). It arrives the following spring when you file, not at closing, and claiming it takes one line on a tax return — but buyers leave it unclaimed simply because no one mentioned it during the purchase. Between the FHSA deductions, this credit, and the transfer tax rebates, a first purchase generates tax effects in three different places (two accounts, one closing statement, one tax return), which is the real argument for the stack being planned as one strategy rather than discovered program by program.

The order of operations

Sequenced properly, the stack assembles itself over a few years: Year one — open the FHSA (room starts), contribute what you can, keep RRSP contributions seasoning. Saving years — max the FHSA's $8,000 a year first, direct overflow to the RRSP, and carry FHSA deductions forward if your income is climbing. Offer time — confirm both partners' first-time status for the rebates, and that RRSP money meant for the HBP has been in place 90 days. Closing — your lawyer applies the land transfer tax rebates in the statement of adjustments. After — file the Home Buyers' Amount, and calendar the HBP repayments that begin in the second year after withdrawal. Run the numbers for each stage with the calculators linked below; the stack rewards planners in proportion to how early they start.

Amortization and the GST rebate: the situational two

Since December 2024, first-time buyers can take a 30-year amortization on an insured mortgage (as can any buyer of a newly built home). It does not change what you can afford under the stress test as much as people hope — the test still applies — but it lowers the monthly payment on whatever you buy, at the cost of more interest over the life of the loan and a 0.25% CMHC premium surcharge. The GST/HST new housing rebate applies only to new or substantially renovated homes: the federal portion rebates up to $6,300 of the GST on homes priced up to $350,000 and phases out completely by $450,000, with an Ontario portion on top that phases out at higher prices; treat those thresholds as the basics and confirm your exact figures with your lawyer, because new-build pricing (and what counts as the final price) decides everything. A further federal measure to eliminate GST on new homes up to $1 million for first-time buyers was proposed in 2025 — check its current status before counting it in a budget. None of these programs require choosing between them: the stack is designed to combine, and the first-time home buyer hub walks the order to use them in — save, qualify with the affordability calculator, then buy.