Unlike almost every other housing incentive, you don't have to be a first-time buyer — we checked, because everybody assumes otherwise. What you do have to do is live in it, and sign before March 31, 2027. And $130,000 is the ceiling, not the average.
Read this first
This page is general information, not tax or legal advice, and reading it creates no professional relationship. The rules are genuinely complicated, they were only finalised in mid-2026, and how they apply depends on your specific purchase. Everything here should be confirmed with your own lawyer and accountant before you sign anything. We are real estate agents — we are not permitted to give tax advice, and we won't pretend otherwise.
HST on a new home in Ontario is 13% — 5% federal and 8% provincial. As of 2026 there are separate rebates aimed at each half, and for a purchase inside the current window they can combine.
| Programme | Covers | Maximum | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario Enhanced New Housing Rebate | The 8% provincial portion | $80,000 | All eligible buyers. Agreement signed April 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027. |
| Ontario New Home Affordability Payment ONHAP · O. Reg. 196/26 |
An amount equivalent to the 5% federal portion, paid by Ontario | $50,000 | Anyone eligible for the ENHR above — so all buyers, not only first-time. Reduced by any federal rebate you receive, so you're never paid twice for the same 5%. No separate application. |
| Federal First-Time Home Buyers' GST Rebate Bill C-4 |
The 5% federal GST | $50,000 | First-time buyers only. Wider window — agreement signed on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031. |
The headline $130,000 is the 8% and the 5% together on a home at exactly $1,000,000 — the point where both portions are still at their maximum. It is a ceiling, not an average. Buy at $800,000 and it's roughly $104,000. Buy at $1.6M and it's under $60,000. Almost nobody lands on $130,000.
So is it first-time buyers only? No.
We get asked this constantly, because most tax relief for housing is aimed at first-time buyers and people reasonably assume this one is too. It isn't. Both Ontario components — the enhanced rebate and ONHAP — go to any eligible purchaser, whether it's your first home or your fourth.
The only piece that is first-time-buyer-specific is the federal GST rebate. If you qualify for that, you claim it first and ONHAP tops up whatever is left. If you don't, ONHAP covers the whole 5% itself. Either way you end up in the same place — which is unusual, and worth knowing if someone has told you otherwise.
What actually excludes people is not being a repeat buyer. It's these: the home must be your primary residence or a relation's, your agreement must be signed inside the window, and construction has to meet its deadlines. Investors buying to rent are the group most likely to be caught out.
The part that's most commonly misunderstood
You'll often see it written that construction must begin before March 31, 2027. That rule is real — it just applies to owner-built homes — where you're building on your own lot. If you're buying from a builder, which is every project on this site, what matters is the date on your agreement. Any list that disqualifies a project because "construction hasn't started" is using the wrong test.
| Condition | The requirement |
|---|---|
| 1. You sign in the window | Agreement of purchase and sale entered into on or after April 1, 2026 and on or before March 31, 2027. |
| 2. Construction starts in time | Construction must begin on or before December 31, 2028. |
| 3. It gets finished | Substantially completed on or before December 31, 2031. |
| 4. You'll live in it | Intended as your primary place of residence, or a relation's. |
Conditions 2 and 3 are the ones nobody can look up. Whether a community will realistically break ground before the end of 2028 isn't published anywhere — it comes from asking the builder. That's the part we actually add.
| Purchase price | Already existed | Combined relief, up to | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to $1,000,000 | $24,000 | $130,000 | Both portions at full rate. Brampton's average sale price sits in this band. |
| $1,000,000 – $1,500,000 | $24,000 | $130,000 | Flat maximum — the amount stops rising with the price. Caledon's average lands here. For a first-time buyer the federal rebate phases out across this range. |
| $1,500,000 – $1,850,000 | $24,000 | Declining | Relief phases down steadily as the price rises. |
| Over $1,850,000 | $24,000 | $24,000 only | Enhanced rebate no longer applies. The existing Ontario new housing rebate may still be available. |
It rarely comes up, and it changes how you read a builder's price list.
Long before any of the 2026 announcements, Ontario had a new housing rebate: 75% of the 8% provincial portion of the HST, capped at $24,000. That cap is reached at a purchase price of roughly $400,000 and holds at every price above it, so on essentially every new home in Brampton or Caledon it was worth the full $24,000. It required the home to be your primary residence, it was open to all buyers, and it has been quietly built into new home pricing here for years.
The 2026 enhanced rebate did not replace it. It topped it up — from $24,000 to as much as $130,000.
Why builder price lists say $106,000 and not $130,000
You will see "Enhanced HST Rebate: $106,000" on price lists for homes in the $1M–$1.5M band and wonder where the other $24,000 went. It didn't go anywhere. $130,000 total, less the $24,000 that already existed, is $106,000 of new money. The builder is showing you the increase, not the total — because the original $24,000 was already assumed in the price you were being quoted last year.
Neither figure is wrong. But if you compare a list quoting $106,000 against one quoting $130,000 and assume one is more generous, you have misread both. Our calculator above splits them so you can see which is which.
This matters more than the number itself, and in our experience it's the question that most often hasn't been asked yet.
In most builder agreements in this market, you assign the rebate to the builder and the price you are quoted is already net of it. The builder claims it from the CRA after closing. That is normal, it is legal, and it is usually the reason a price looks lower than you expected.
But it carries a consequence that nobody enjoys discovering at closing:
| How it's structured | What you pay | The risk you carry |
|---|---|---|
| Assigned to the builder most common here |
The lower, net-of-rebate price | If you turn out not to qualify, you owe the builder the full rebate amount on closing day — in cash, on top of everything else. On a $1M home that is up to $130,000 you were not planning for. |
| You claim it yourself | The full price including HST at closing | You need the entire HST amount available on closing day and then wait for the CRA to refund you. Slower, but the risk of not qualifying is priced in from the start. |
Ask your agent and your lawyer, in writing, how your specific agreement is structured — before you sign, not at closing. The clause is in the agreement. It takes two minutes to find and it is the single largest piece of downside risk in a pre-construction purchase.
You will not qualify if the home is not intended as a primary residence for you or a relation, if you signed outside the window, or if construction misses the deadlines. Any one of those turns an assigned rebate into a bill.
And when the enhanced programme ends
The enhanced rebate is temporary. When it expires, the $24,000 provincial rebate remains — it is the floor, not something that disappears with it. So the real question in March 2027 is not "do I still get a rebate," it's "am I giving up the extra $106,000."
Two separate deadlines are about to overlap, and the order they fall in matters.
| If you sign… | HST rebate | Can you change your mind? |
|---|---|---|
| Now through Dec 31, 2026 | Available — you're inside the window | No. Freehold homes in Ontario currently have no cooling-off period. You are bound on signature. |
| Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2027 | Still available — the window runs to March 31 | Yes. The Homeowner Protection Act, 2024 gives freehold buyers a 10-day right to rescind from January 1, 2027, with your deposit returned plus interest. |
| April 1, 2027 onward | Enhanced rebate gone. The $24,000 provincial rebate remains. | Yes, the 10 days still applies. |
So there is a three-month window — January, February and March 2027 — where you can have the rebate and ten days to walk away. Today you can only have the first.
What we'd actually tell you. If you have found the right home and the right lot, sign. Waiting three months to buy a cooling-off period you probably won't use is not a strategy, and the good lots go first. But if you are genuinely unsure, or buying something you haven't stood on, that ten days is worth knowing about — and it costs you nothing but patience. The cooling-off date has already been pushed back once, from January 2026, so confirm it is still in force before you plan around it.
On an assignment, the original agreement of purchase and sale and the assignment agreement must both have been entered into between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027. Somebody who signed their contract in 2024 or 2025 cannot pass this rebate to you. If an assignment is being advertised as rebate-eligible, ask for the date on the original agreement before anything else.
The purchaser rebate requires the home be intended as a primary residence for you or a relation. There is separate treatment for new residential rental property, and the two are not interchangeable. If this is an investment purchase, do not assume the $130,000 applies to you — get a written answer from your lawyer before you sign. We would rather tell you now than have you discover it at closing.
Builders are permitted to credit the rebate against your closing costs, and most will. But they aren't obliged to, and some are cautious while CRA processing catches up. If your builder won't credit it, you pay the full HST on closing day and claim the rebate back afterwards — which on a $1M purchase can mean finding six figures in cash you weren't planning on. Ask this question before you sign, not at closing. It belongs in the same conversation as your deposit schedule.
March 31, 2027 is not a soft target. An agreement signed on April 1 doesn't qualify for the enhanced portion, however close you were. If a project you like is still in registration, that's worth knowing now rather than in February.
The 5% component is formally the Ontario New Home Affordability Payment (ONHAP), administered by the province rather than the CRA, and it needs no separate application. The freehold cooling-off period comes from the Homeowner Protection Act, 2024, in force for this purpose on January 1, 2027. Ontario's Bill 114 received royal assent on May 12, 2026; the federal Bill C-26 followed on June 18; Ontario Regulation 196/26 was made on June 22 and delivers the 5% top-up. The federal First-Time Home Buyers' GST Rebate came through Bill C-4, which received royal assent on March 12, 2026. CRA's guidance is published as Notice 346.
We check this page against CRA guidance each quarter. Last reviewed: . If you spot something out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
Whether agreements can still be signed inside the window, confirmed with the builder. A project stays marked "confirming" until we have an answer we'd put our name to.
Tell us your situation and we'll give you a straight answer — including if the answer is that you don't qualify, or that waiting is the smarter move. We'll also tell you which builders are crediting the rebate at closing and which aren't.