First-Time Home Buyer Toronto 2026

Are You Actually a First-Time Buyer?

The answer depends on which program you’re asking about, because the definition varies. For the federal programs (the FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan), the definition is based on a rolling four-year window. You qualify as a first-time buyer if you have not owned a home that you lived in at any point during the current calendar year or the four preceding calendar years. If you owned a home, sold it, and have been renting for more than four full calendar years since, you qualify again. This is significant for people who bought in their twenties, went through a separation, or moved markets, and now find themselves renting in Toronto with savings they want to put to work.

The Ontario and Toronto land transfer tax rebates use a stricter definition. To claim those rebates, you must never have owned a home anywhere in the world. A buyer who owned property in another province, another country, or even as a partial interest years ago does not qualify for the rebates, even if they meet the federal four-year rule. If you’re in any doubt about your ownership history, talk to a real estate lawyer before assuming you’ll get the rebate. The lawyer claims it at closing, and if you’ve claimed it incorrectly, the provincial government can claw it back.

The spouse and partner complication catches people off guard. For both the Ontario and Toronto rebates, if your spouse or common-law partner owned a home at any point during your relationship, neither of you qualifies for the rebate on this purchase. The rule applies to the couple, not just the individual. So if you’ve never owned a home yourself but your partner bought a condo ten years ago and sold it before you met them, that doesn’t disqualify you, because the ownership predates the relationship. But if they owned a home during the time you were together, you both lose the rebate, regardless of whose name was on title.

The federal definition for the FHSA and HBP does not apply the same spouse rule in the same way. You can still contribute to and withdraw from an FHSA based on your own ownership history, though your eligibility to open an account in the first place depends on whether you (or your spouse or common-law partner) currently own a qualifying home. If your partner is a homeowner today, you likely can’t open a new FHSA. The rules here interact in ways that aren’t always obvious, so the earlier you get advice from a mortgage broker and a lawyer, the fewer surprises you’ll face at closing.

Why does this matter so much? Because the programs and rebates attached to first-time buyer status are worth real money. The land transfer tax rebates alone save you up to $8,475 in Toronto. The FHSA gives you $40,000 in tax-free savings capacity. The RRSP HBP lets you pull $60,000 from your retirement savings without immediate tax. Understanding exactly which category you fall into before you start saving and planning determines which tools you can use and how to sequence them. (canada.ca, April 2026)

The First Home Savings Account

The First Home Savings Account, introduced in April 2023, is the most useful savings tool the federal government has created for first-time buyers in decades. It combines two tax advantages that previously came separately: your contributions are tax-deductible (like an RRSP), and your withdrawals are tax-free when used to buy a qualifying home (like a TFSA). No other account gives you both. (canada.ca, April 2026)

The annual contribution limit is $8,000, with a lifetime limit of $40,000. If you don’t contribute the full $8,000 in a given year, you can carry forward up to $8,000 of unused room to the following year, which means you can contribute up to $16,000 in a single year if you had unused room from the year before. This carry-forward applies to unused room from 2023 onward. In your first full year after opening, if you contributed nothing, you’d enter year two with $16,000 in available room.

When you withdraw from the FHSA to buy a home, you owe no tax on the withdrawal. You also don’t have to repay the money. This is the key difference from the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan, which is also a useful tool but requires you to put the money back into your RRSP over 15 years. The FHSA is simpler and has no repayment clock. Any funds in the account that you don’t use to buy a home can be transferred to an RRSP or RRIF without affecting your existing contribution room, so there’s no downside to opening one even if your plans change.

The practical advice on the FHSA is to open it as early as possible, even if you can only make a small contribution in the first year. Opening the account starts your contribution room clock. If you open the account in 2025 and contribute nothing, you enter 2026 with $16,000 in room. If you wait until 2026 to open it, you start with $8,000. The account can hold cash, GICs, ETFs, and other qualifying investments, so you can manage it like any other registered account. The investments grow tax-free inside the account.

To be eligible, you must be a Canadian resident, at least 18 years old, and a first-time buyer under the federal definition (no home ownership in the current or preceding four calendar years). You must also not be turning 72 or older in the year you open the account. You can hold an FHSA at any financial institution that offers them, which now includes most major banks and credit unions.

One nuance worth understanding: the tax deduction from an FHSA contribution works just like an RRSP deduction. You can choose to claim the deduction in the year you contributed, or carry it forward to a future year when your income is higher. If you’re currently earning less than you expect to in a few years, carrying the deduction forward means you get a larger tax benefit from the same contribution. (canada.ca, April 2026)

The RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan

The RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan lets you withdraw up to $60,000 from your RRSP to use as a down payment on a first home, without triggering immediate income tax on the withdrawal. The $60,000 limit per person was increased in the April 2024 federal budget, up from the previous $35,000. For a couple where both partners qualify as first-time buyers, the combined limit is $120,000. These are substantial sums when you’re trying to clear a down payment threshold in a market like Toronto. (canada.ca, April 2026)

The catch is the repayment requirement. Unlike the FHSA, the HBP is not a permanent withdrawal. You must repay the amount you withdrew back into your RRSP over 15 years, starting in the second calendar year after the year you made the withdrawal. Each year you’re required to repay 1/15th of the total amount. If you withdrew $60,000, your annual repayment is $4,000. If you miss a repayment in a given year, that amount is added to your taxable income for that year, as if you had withdrawn it from the RRSP without the HBP exemption.

There’s a temporary exception for buyers who made HBP withdrawals between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2025. For those buyers, the repayment clock is delayed by three years: the 15-year repayment period doesn’t start until the fifth year after the withdrawal. So if you withdrew in 2024, your first required repayment isn’t until the 2029 tax year. This was introduced to give buyers who purchased during or shortly after the pandemic period more breathing room before repayments began.

To use the HBP, the money must already be in your RRSP and have been there for at least 90 days before you withdraw it. You can’t put money into an RRSP and immediately pull it back out under the HBP. This means the HBP is most useful for buyers who have been contributing to an RRSP for several years and have meaningful savings sitting in the account. If you’re starting from scratch, the FHSA is likely the better tool to prioritize, since there’s no repayment obligation and the tax treatment is at least as good.

One important procedural detail: you complete the HBP by filing a T1036 form with the CRA. Your financial institution will issue a T4RSP slip showing the withdrawal as income, and you use the T1036 to designate it as a qualifying HBP withdrawal so it’s excluded from your taxable income for that year. This happens at tax time following the withdrawal year. Get the form from canada.ca and file it with your return. (canada.ca, April 2026)

Combining FHSA and RRSP HBP

The federal government explicitly permits first-time buyers to use both the FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan toward the same home purchase. This is not a loophole or a grey area. It was designed this way, and the CRA confirms it. For a single buyer who has maximized both accounts, it means up to $100,000 in tax-advantaged funds available for a down payment: $40,000 from the FHSA (lifetime limit) plus $60,000 from the RRSP HBP. For a couple where both qualify, that’s up to $200,000 combined. (canada.ca, April 2026)

The strategic question is which to draw from first. The answer is almost always the FHSA. FHSA withdrawals carry no repayment obligation, so drawing those funds has no long-term cost beyond the account being depleted. RRSP HBP withdrawals, by contrast, start a 15-year repayment clock. You want to use the tool with no strings before the one with conditions attached. Draw your FHSA balance in full first, then draw from the HBP to make up the remainder of what you need.

There’s also a sequencing advantage to opening an FHSA as early as possible, even before you’re actively planning to buy. Every year the account is open, you accumulate contribution room. The investments inside the account grow tax-free. By the time you’re ready to buy, the FHSA balance can be substantially larger than just the cash you contributed, if you invested it rather than leaving it in cash. An FHSA opened in 2023, maximized every year, and invested in a diversified portfolio would have grown well beyond $40,000 by 2026 in most scenarios. That additional growth comes out tax-free alongside your contributions when you make a qualifying withdrawal.

For buyers who haven’t had time to accumulate much in either account, the math still favours the same order. Whatever you have in the FHSA comes out first and free. Whatever gap remains can be filled by the HBP if you have RRSP savings. And if you’re using both, make sure your lawyer and mortgage broker know the full picture so your down payment funds are properly documented for the mortgage application. Lenders want to see a 90-day paper trail for down payment funds, and registered account withdrawals need to be shown alongside the account statements.

Buyers with no existing RRSP savings but who are starting to save today are best served by prioritizing FHSA contributions up to the annual $8,000 limit before adding money to an RRSP. The FHSA gives you the same immediate tax deduction as an RRSP contribution, but the withdrawal is better: tax-free with no repayment, compared to the HBP’s repayable structure. Once you’ve maximized your FHSA room for the year, additional savings can go into the RRSP to build HBP capacity for the purchase.

Land Transfer Tax Rebates in Toronto

Toronto is the only city in Canada where buyers pay two separate land transfer taxes on the same purchase. Every buyer in Ontario pays the provincial Land Transfer Tax; buyers within the City of Toronto also pay the Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax on top. The combined cost is material. On a $800,000 purchase, the Ontario LTT is approximately $12,475 and the Toronto MLTT is approximately $11,725, for a combined bill of $24,200. On a $1,000,000 purchase, the combined taxes exceed $32,000. This is money due at closing, on top of your down payment. (Ontario Ministry of Finance, April 2026; City of Toronto, April 2026)

First-time buyers who qualify get a significant offset. The Ontario LTT rebate is up to $4,000, and the Toronto MLTT rebate is up to $4,475, for a combined maximum of $8,475. On purchases where the LTT owing is less than the rebate maximum, the rebate covers the entire tax and no amount is payable. The Ontario rebate wipes out the entire provincial LTT on purchases up to approximately $368,000. On most Toronto condo purchases, both rebates apply but don’t fully offset the total tax, so you’ll still owe a balance, but it’s meaningfully reduced.

Your real estate lawyer claims both rebates on your behalf at closing. You don’t file a separate application or claim them on your tax return. The rebates are applied directly against the LTT owing, reducing what you pay at the table. All you need to do is confirm your first-time buyer status with your lawyer ahead of closing so they have the documentation ready.

The eligibility rules are strict. You must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. You must intend to occupy the property as your principal residence within nine months of closing. You must never have owned a home anywhere in the world. And if your spouse or common-law partner owned a home during your relationship, neither of you qualifies, regardless of your own ownership history. Mistakes here aren’t minor: the Province of Ontario audits LTT rebate claims, and a clawback comes with interest.

For the full LTT calculation with worked examples at different price points, see our Toronto Land Transfer Tax guide. It covers the rate tiers, how the two taxes stack, and what buyers at $650,000, $800,000, and $1,200,000 actually pay after rebates.

Down Payment Minimums and What They Cost

The minimum down payment rules in Canada were updated on December 15, 2024, and the changes matter significantly for Toronto buyers. The new rules expanded the availability of insured mortgages to purchases up to $1,499,999, up from the previous ceiling of $1,000,000. This brings a meaningful share of the Toronto market back within reach of buyers who can only put down 5% to 19.99%. (CMHC, April 2026; Department of Finance Canada, April 2026)

The down payment tiers work as follows. On the first $500,000 of the purchase price, the minimum is 5%. On the portion between $500,000 and $1,499,999, the minimum is 10%. For purchases at $1,500,000 or more, no insured mortgage is available and the minimum down payment is 20%, paid in full, with no CMHC insurance option.

On Toronto’s average resale condo price of approximately $664,000 (TRREB, Q1 2026), the minimum down payment calculation is: 5% of $500,000 ($25,000) plus 10% of $164,000 ($16,400), for a total minimum of $41,400. That’s not 5% of the full price. The blended minimum for a $664,000 condo is closer to 6.2% of the purchase price. Buyers sometimes run the math wrong by applying 5% to the total and ending up short at closing.

On a $900,000 property, the calculation is: 5% of $500,000 ($25,000) plus 10% of $400,000 ($40,000), for a minimum of $65,000. That’s 7.2% of the purchase price. On a $1,200,000 property, the minimum is $25,000 plus 10% of $700,000 ($70,000), totalling $95,000, or just under 8% of the price.

At 20% down, you exit the insured mortgage category entirely. No CMHC premium applies. You have access to a conventional mortgage with different lender flexibility on amortization, and you’re not subject to the insured mortgage price cap. For buyers purchasing above $1.5 million, 20% down is the only option, and the full 20% must come from verifiable sources.

CMHC Mortgage Default Insurance

CMHC mortgage default insurance is a premium charged on any mortgage where the down payment is less than 20% of the purchase price. The insurance protects the lender, not the buyer. If you default on the mortgage, CMHC pays the lender’s losses. In exchange for this protection, lenders accept lower down payments than they otherwise would, which is why the insured mortgage system exists: it allows buyers into the market with 5% down rather than waiting until they can save 20%. (CMHC, April 2026)

The premium is calculated as a percentage of the insured loan amount (the purchase price minus your down payment). With 5% down, the premium is 4.00% of the loan. With 10% down, it drops to 3.10%. With 15% down, it’s 2.80%. There’s no premium once your down payment reaches 20%.

To work through a concrete example: on a $700,000 purchase with 5% down ($35,000), your insured loan is $665,000. The CMHC premium is 4.00% of $665,000, which is $26,600. That $26,600 is added to your mortgage balance, so you finance it over the life of the loan rather than paying it in cash. Your actual mortgage at closing would be $691,600. At 5% interest over 25 years, the CMHC premium adds roughly $155 per month to your payment compared to having no premium.

What you do pay in cash at closing is the Ontario PST on the premium. Ontario charges 8% PST on CMHC premiums, and this cannot be added to the mortgage. On a $26,600 premium, the PST is $2,128, due at closing alongside your other closing costs. This is a number that surprises buyers who only planned for the down payment and land transfer taxes.

Since December 15, 2024, first-time buyers can access 30-year amortizations on insured mortgages, including on resale properties. Previously, 30-year amortizations on insured mortgages were available only for new construction. The extended amortization lowers monthly payments, which helps buyers qualify under the stress test, but the total interest paid over the life of the loan is higher. On a $691,600 mortgage at 5%, the difference in monthly payment between a 25-year and 30-year amortization is approximately $310. Over the full term, the 30-year amortization costs roughly $65,000 more in interest.

The Stress Test and What It Means for You

The mortgage stress test is a federal rule that applies to all mortgages from federally regulated lenders, which includes the major banks and most credit unions. The rule requires lenders to qualify you not at the rate they’re offering, but at the higher of two numbers: your contract rate plus 2 percentage points, or a floor rate of 5.25%. If your lender offers you a mortgage at 4.5%, the stress test rate is 6.5%, because 4.5% plus 2% equals 6.5%, which is above the 5.25% floor. You must demonstrate that you can afford the payments at 6.5%, even though you’ll pay at 4.5%. (Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, April 2026)

What this does in practice is reduce your maximum purchase price by roughly 15% to 20% compared to what you’d qualify for if the lender used your actual rate. A buyer with a $120,000 household income might qualify for a $750,000 mortgage at their contract rate but only a $625,000 mortgage once the stress test is applied. The gap between what you think you can borrow and what you actually qualify for often surprises first-time buyers who run the numbers themselves without accounting for it.

The stress test doesn’t affect your actual payments. You’re approved at the stress test rate to confirm you could handle higher payments, but your mortgage agreement and your monthly payment are based on your contract rate. The stress test is a qualification filter, not a pricing mechanism. Once you’re approved and your mortgage is funded, the stress test has no further effect on your finances unless you refinance or switch lenders.

There are a few ways to work around the impact of the stress test if it’s limiting what you can buy. A larger down payment reduces the loan amount, which reduces the monthly payment even at the stress test rate. A longer amortization (now up to 30 years for first-time buyers on insured mortgages) lowers the monthly payment and can improve your qualifying position. A co-signer with strong income can be added to the mortgage application. Or you can simply target a lower purchase price, which remains the most direct solution. The stress test is worth understanding not because you can avoid it, but because it’s the single largest gap between what buyers expect to qualify for and what they actually do.

The 5.25% floor rate was set at a time when actual mortgage rates were much lower. With rates in the mid-4% range in early 2026, the effective stress test rate for most buyers is their contract rate plus 2%, well above the 5.25% floor. The floor only comes into play when contract rates drop below 3.25%, which hasn’t happened since the floor was put in place.

The New GST Rebate on New Construction (March 2025)

On March 20, 2025, the federal government introduced an additional GST/HST rebate for first-time buyers purchasing new construction homes. The rebate is worth up to $50,000 on the federal GST portion of the purchase price, and it applies to qualifying homes purchased for under $1.5 million. This is one of the largest incentives for new construction buyers to have been introduced in Canada in recent memory, and it applies to agreements of purchase and sale signed on or after March 20, 2025, and before January 1, 2031. (Department of Finance Canada, April 2026)

The rebate is structured as a full offset of the federal GST on homes priced under $1 million, up to a maximum of $50,000. Between $1 million and $1.5 million, the rebate phases out. At $1.25 million, the rebate is approximately $25,000. At $1.5 million, the rebate reaches zero and the full GST is payable. For a new condo purchased at $750,000, the federal GST component is approximately $37,500 (5% of $750,000). The new rebate eliminates that entire amount for a qualifying first-time buyer.

This rebate stacks on top of the existing new housing GST/HST rebate that has been available for years. The pre-existing rebate phases out between $350,000 and $450,000 in purchase price and provides partial relief below those thresholds. The new 2025 rebate is separate and additive, meaning buyers of new homes under $1 million get the benefit of both. This effectively eliminates the federal GST as a cost of buying a new home for first-time buyers in the sub-$1 million price band.

For buyers weighing new construction versus resale, this changes the math. New construction in Toronto was previously penalized by the GST relative to resale homes (which don’t attract GST). The new rebate closes most of that gap for first-time buyers, making pre-construction condos and townhouses financially more comparable to resale on an all-in basis. Buyers considering pre-construction should confirm their agreement is dated March 20, 2025, or later, and should verify their first-time buyer status before signing, since the rebate depends on both conditions being met.

One point of caution: the rebate applies to the federal GST portion. Ontario HST is made up of the 5% federal component and the 8% provincial component. The new rebate covers the federal portion only. The Ontario provincial component is subject to the existing provincial new housing rebate rules, which have different thresholds and are not changed by this measure. Your lawyer and accountant can help you calculate the full GST/HST position on a specific new construction purchase. (Department of Finance Canada, April 2026)

The Buying Process: What Actually Happens

The first step before you look at a single listing is mortgage pre-approval, not pre-qualification. These are different things. Pre-qualification is a rough estimate based on numbers you provide verbally. Pre-approval involves a lender reviewing your actual income documents, credit report, employment history, and down payment sources, and issuing a written commitment to lend up to a specific amount at a specific rate, subject to the property appraising. Pre-approval gives you a real number to work with. It also locks in a rate for 90 to 120 days in most cases, which protects you if rates rise while you’re searching. Your mortgage broker will need your most recent T4s or NOAs, three months of bank statements showing your down payment, and proof of employment.

Once you have pre-approval in hand, you work with a buyer’s agent to find the property. A buyer’s agent in Ontario is paid through the listing (typically from the seller’s proceeds), so their services cost you nothing directly. The agent’s job is to help you find properties that meet your criteria, identify issues that aren’t visible in a listing, write and negotiate your offer, and guide you through conditions and closing. Choose an agent who works the specific areas and property types you’re targeting. An agent who primarily handles Etobicoke detached homes may not be the right person for a downtown condo purchase, and vice versa.

When you find a property you want to buy, your agent submits a formal offer called an Agreement of Purchase and Sale. The offer specifies the purchase price, the irrevocable period (the window during which the seller can accept, reject, or counter), the closing date, and any conditions. Standard conditions for a first-time buyer are financing and home inspection. On a condo, you’ll also want a condition to review the status certificate, which is a package of documents that tells you about the building’s financial health, reserve fund, and any special assessments.

The conditions period is typically five business days. During that window, your home inspector walks through the property and produces a written report covering the structure, systems, and anything they can visually identify as a concern. Your lender confirms the financing based on the specific property’s appraisal. For condos, your lawyer reviews the status certificate and flags anything in the building’s financials that should concern you before you firm up. Once you waive conditions and the deal goes firm, you’re committed. Back out after that and you lose your deposit, which is typically 5% of the purchase price, held in trust.

Closing is the date the property legally transfers to you. Your lawyer handles the title search, ensures the seller’s mortgage is discharged, calculates and pays the land transfer taxes (net of any rebates you qualify for), registers the transfer, and keys over the funds to the seller. You’ll receive a closing cost statement from your lawyer a few days before the date, showing exactly what you owe at closing: remaining down payment, land transfer taxes (net of rebates), legal fees, title insurance, and any adjustments for prepaid property taxes or utilities. You transfer those funds to your lawyer’s trust account, usually by wire, before the closing date.

After you take possession, a few things typically surprise first-time buyers in the first year. Property tax instalments: the City of Toronto bills property taxes in multiple instalments throughout the year, and the first bill after purchase is often an estimate based on the previous owner’s assessment. Condo maintenance fees: if you’re in a condo, monthly fees are due regardless of what else is happening financially, and they can increase each year based on the board’s budget. And the bank charges your mortgage payment monthly from your account, starting roughly 30 days after closing. Having three months of expenses in savings when you close is not excessive. It’s the buffer most buyers wish they’d kept.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first-time buyer land transfer tax rebate in Toronto?

Toronto first-time buyers can claim two separate rebates at closing: up to $4,000 from the Ontario Land Transfer Tax and up to $4,475 from the Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax, for a combined maximum of $8,475. Your lawyer claims both automatically at closing. To qualify, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you must occupy the property as your principal residence within nine months of closing, and you must never have owned a home anywhere in the world. If your spouse owned a home at any point during your relationship, neither of you qualifies. The eligibility rules are applied at the time of purchase, not retroactively, so confirm your status with your lawyer before closing day. (Ontario Ministry of Finance, April 2026; City of Toronto, April 2026)

Can I use both the FHSA and RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan?

Yes. The federal government specifically allows first-time buyers to use both the First Home Savings Account and the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan toward the same purchase. The FHSA lifetime limit is $40,000 and the HBP limit is $60,000 per person, so a single buyer can draw up to $100,000 in tax-advantaged funds for a down payment. A couple where both partners qualify can combine up to $200,000. The recommended order is to withdraw FHSA funds first, since there’s no repayment obligation. RRSP HBP withdrawals must be repaid over 15 years or the outstanding balance is added to your taxable income. Both accounts generate tax deductions when you contribute, but only the FHSA delivers withdrawals with no repayment requirement. (canada.ca, April 2026)

What does it mean to be a first-time buyer in Ontario?

The definition differs depending on which program you’re asking about. For federal programs (FHSA and RRSP HBP), you’re a first-time buyer if you haven’t owned a home you lived in at any point during the current calendar year or the preceding four calendar years. For the Ontario and Toronto land transfer tax rebates, the definition is stricter: you must never have owned a home anywhere in the world. Someone who owned a condo in another country ten years ago qualifies federally under the four-year rule but does not qualify for the provincial or municipal rebates. The spouse rule also differs: for rebate purposes, your partner’s prior ownership during your relationship disqualifies both of you, regardless of your own history. (canada.ca, April 2026; Ontario Ministry of Finance, April 2026)

How much is CMHC mortgage insurance?

CMHC mortgage default insurance is required on any purchase with less than 20% down, and the premium rate depends on your down payment. With 5% down, the premium is 4.00% of the insured loan amount. With 10% down, it’s 3.10%. With 15% down, it’s 2.80%. On a $700,000 purchase with 5% down ($35,000), the insured loan is $665,000 and the CMHC premium is $26,600. That amount is added to your mortgage balance and financed over the amortization period. However, Ontario charges 8% PST on the premium, amounting to $2,128 on a $26,600 premium, and that PST must be paid in cash at closing. It can’t be added to the mortgage. No CMHC premium applies on purchases with 20% or more down. (CMHC, April 2026)

What is the stress test and how does it affect how much I can borrow?

The mortgage stress test requires federally regulated lenders to qualify you at the higher of your contract rate plus 2%, or a floor of 5.25%. If your lender offers a rate of 4.5%, the stress test rate is 6.5%. You must prove you can afford payments at 6.5% even though you’ll actually pay at 4.5%. In practice, this reduces your maximum purchase price by roughly 15% to 20%. A buyer who could qualify for a $700,000 mortgage at their contract rate might only qualify for $580,000 once the stress test is applied. The stress test doesn’t change your actual rate or payments after approval: it’s a qualification filter only. Larger down payments, longer amortizations, and lower purchase prices all reduce the impact. (OSFI, April 2026)

Can first-time buyers get a 30-year mortgage?

Yes. Since December 15, 2024, all first-time buyers in Canada can access 30-year amortizations on insured mortgages, including on resale homes. Previously, insured mortgages were capped at 25-year amortizations for resale purchases. The longer amortization lowers monthly payments, which can help borrowers qualify under the stress test, but total interest paid over the loan’s life is substantially higher. On a $691,600 mortgage (a $700,000 purchase with 5% down plus CMHC premium) at 5% interest, the difference between a 25-year and 30-year amortization is roughly $310 per month in payments, but approximately $65,000 more in total interest over the full term. Most buyers use the 30-year option to qualify and then accelerate repayment when cash flow allows. (CMHC, April 2026)

What is the new GST rebate for first-time buyers of new construction?

On March 20, 2025, the federal government introduced a new GST/HST rebate for first-time buyers of new construction homes. The rebate covers up to $50,000 of the federal GST on homes purchased for under $1 million. It phases out between $1 million and $1.5 million, reaching zero at $1.5 million. For a new condo purchased at $800,000, the federal GST would normally be $40,000 (5% of $800,000), and the new rebate eliminates this entirely for a qualifying first-time buyer. The rebate applies only to agreements of purchase and sale signed on or after March 20, 2025, and before January 1, 2031. It stacks on top of the existing new housing GST/HST rebate. This makes new construction meaningfully more competitive with resale for first-time buyers in the sub-$1 million price range. (Department of Finance Canada, April 2026)

What are the total upfront costs for a first-time buyer in Toronto?

Beyond the down payment, first-time buyers in Toronto typically face several closing costs. Land transfer taxes (Ontario and Toronto combined) can reach $32,000 or more on a $1,000,000 purchase, though qualifying first-time buyers reduce this by up to $8,475 in rebates. Legal fees run $1,500 to $2,500. A home inspection costs $500 to $700. Title insurance is $300 to $500. If your down payment is under 20%, you’ll also owe Ontario PST on the CMHC premium: 8% of the premium, payable in cash at closing (on a $700,000 purchase with 5% down, that’s approximately $2,128). Your deposit, typically 5% of the purchase price, is due within 24 hours of a firm offer, but it counts toward your down payment. Budget at least $8,000 to $20,000 in closing costs beyond the down payment, with the amount depending heavily on purchase price and whether you qualify for LTT rebates.