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Ottawa first-time buyer guide
First Time Home Buyer Ontario: What Every 2026 Program Is Actually Worth
Most guides give you a list of programs and stop there. I will give you the dollar figure behind each one, the two new 2026 rebates, and the order I would use them in.
By Nick Bachusky, Mortgage Agent Level 1 · Published July 17, 2026 · Reviewed September 23, 2026
Ontario first-time buyers can use several programs to help with a down payment or reduce buying costs. Eligibility, timing, and tax treatment differ, so I explain what each program offers and when it can help with your purchase.
I am Nick Bachusky, a licensed Mortgage Agent in Ottawa. I do this math with first-time buyers every week, so I will keep it plain. Everything here is education, dated July 2026, not a promise. Your real numbers depend on your income, your price, and the property.
Two things have changed recently, and they matter. Ontario and Ottawa buyers now have two brand-new 2026 rebates worth tens of thousands on a new build. And one program that still shows up all over Google was quietly cancelled. Let us clear both up.
TLDR, the short version
- There is no single first-time buyer program in Ontario. There is a stack of five or six, and the savings come from using them together, not one at a time.
- The FHSA gives you $8,000 of room a year up to a $40,000 lifetime limit, and a qualifying withdrawal for a home comes out tax-free.
- The RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan lets each person pull up to $60,000 from their RRSP toward a first home, repaid over 15 years, if the money sat there 90 days first.
- The Ontario land transfer tax rebate is worth up to $4,000, and Ottawa charges no municipal land transfer tax, so closing day is cheaper here than in Toronto.
- New for 2026: a federal GST rebate worth up to $50,000 on a qualifying new build, plus an Ontario rebate of up to $80,000 of the provincial HST. The old First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is gone. Figures dated July 2026.
The full stack
What first-time home buyer programs can you actually get in Ontario in 2026?
As a first time home buyer in Ontario you can stack up to six forms of help: the First Home Savings Account, the RRSP Home Buyers Plan, the Ontario land transfer tax rebate, the federal Home Buyers Tax Credit, and, on a qualifying new build, the two new 2026 GST and HST rebates. Used together, that is a large, mostly tax-advantaged head start.
The trap is treating them as a menu where you pick one. They are not. The first time home buyer programs Ontario offers are designed to layer. The FHSA and the Home Buyers Plan build your down payment. The land transfer rebate and the tax credit hand you cash back around closing. The new GST and HST rebates only apply to new construction, but when they apply they are the biggest number on the page.
Here is the honest part. Not one of these fits every buyer. A resale townhome buyer never touches the GST rebate. A buyer with no RRSP cannot use the Home Buyers Plan yet. My job is to look at your actual situation and tell you which of these are real money for you, and which are noise.
| Program | What it does | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|
| First Home Savings Account (FHSA) | Down-payment savings | Up to $8,000/yr, $40,000 lifetime, tax-free for a home |
| RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan | Down-payment savings | Up to $60,000 per person, repaid over 15 years |
| Ontario land transfer tax rebate | Cash back at closing | Up to $4,000 |
| Home Buyers’ Tax Credit | Cash back at tax time | Up to $1,500 |
| Federal FTHB GST/HST rebate (new build) | New construction only | Up to $50,000 |
| Ontario FTHB rebate (new build) | New construction only | Up to $80,000 of provincial HST |
Figures dated July 2026 and illustrative, not guarantees. New-build rebates apply to new or substantially renovated homes only.
Buying in Ottawa specifically? The full first-time buyer guide for Ottawa walks the local price ranges, neighbourhoods, and the step-by-step path from first call to keys.
The trap to avoid
Is the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive still available?
No. The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, the shared-equity program where the government took a stake in your home, was discontinued. No new applications were accepted after March 21, 2024. If a blog or a calculator still lists it as a live option, that page is out of date.
This is the single biggest factual trap on this topic, and Google is part of the problem. Search the term today and you will still find stale guides listing it. The official record is clear: CMHC confirms the incentive stopped accepting applications on March 21, 2024. Plenty of comparison sites never updated.
I have had first-time buyers walk in counting on that incentive as part of their plan, and I have had to be the one to tell them it is gone. Do not build a down payment around a program that no longer exists.
The good news: what replaced it in 2026 is worth far more to most buyers than the old incentive ever was. That is the GST and HST rebate story next.
Gone since March 2024. Still all over Google.
The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is not a program you can use. Any plan that includes it needs to be rebuilt on what is actually live.
Your down-payment engine
How do the FHSA and RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan work together?
You can use both, and most first-time buyers should. The First Home Savings Account gives you up to $8,000 of room a year to a $40,000 lifetime limit, and a qualifying withdrawal for a home comes out tax-free. The RRSP Home Buyers Plan lets you withdraw up to $60,000 from your RRSP toward the same home, repaid over 15 years.
First Home Savings Account
$40,000
Lifetime limit, at up to $8,000 a year. Contributions lower your taxable income and a qualifying home withdrawal is tax-free. It runs on a strict calendar year and carries only one year of room forward, so open one early.
RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan
$60,000
Per person, withdrawn tax-free from your RRSP and repaid over 15 years. The money must sit in the RRSP for at least 90 days first, so a last-minute top-up will not work.
Now the reason to stack them. A couple who both maximise the FHSA and the Home Buyers Plan have roughly $80,000 of FHSA room and $120,000 of RRSP withdrawal capacity to point at one purchase. You will rarely fill all of it, but even part of it is a serious, tax-smart down payment. The order I usually suggest: build the FHSA first for the deduction, then layer the Home Buyers Plan once the account has aged past 90 days. Both the CRA rules for the FHSA and the Home Buyers’ Plan are worth reading before you commit.
New for 2026
What do the new 2026 GST and HST rebates give first-time buyers?
If you buy a qualifying new build, two 2026 rebates can save you a lot. The federal First-Time Home Buyers’ GST/HST rebate removes 100% of the GST, or the federal part of the HST, on a new home valued up to $1 million, worth up to $50,000. Ontario adds a rebate of up to $80,000 of the provincial part of the HST on top.
Federal GST/HST rebate
$50,000
Up to. Removes 100% of the GST on a new home up to $1 million, and reduces the tax between $1 million and $1.5 million. Applications are open now.
Ontario provincial rebate
$80,000
Up to, of the provincial part of the HST. It follows the same eligibility rules as the federal rebate, and both sit on top of the existing new housing rebate.
A few honest caveats. Both apply to a new or substantially renovated home bought on or after March 20, 2025, so a resale home does not qualify. The full benefit lands on homes under the $1 million mark and tapers off above it. And the paperwork is fussy, which is exactly the kind of thing I check before you sign, so a rebate you are owed does not slip away. You can read the CRA page for the first-time home buyers’ GST/HST rebate for the federal and Ontario details in one place. For a resale buyer, the FHSA, the Home Buyers Plan, and the land transfer rebate below are still your core stack.
Cash back at closing
What does the Ontario land transfer tax rebate save you, and what is Ottawa’s quiet advantage?
When you buy in Ontario you pay land transfer tax, but as a first-time buyer you claim a refund of up to $4,000. That fully covers the tax on the first $368,000 of the price, and above that you pay only the balance. This is the land transfer tax rebate Ontario first-timers ask about most.
The bigger Ottawa story is the tax you never see. Unlike Toronto, the City of Ottawa charges no municipal land transfer tax. A Toronto buyer pays a second city tax on top of the provincial one. In Ottawa there is only the provincial bill, and the rebate takes a bite out of that. You claim the refund through your lawyer, and you have to apply within 18 months per Ontario’s land transfer tax rules.
| On a $600,000 first home | Ottawa | Toronto |
|---|---|---|
| Provincial land transfer tax | About $8,475 | About $8,475 |
| Municipal land transfer tax | None | About $8,475 |
| First-time buyer rebate | Up to $4,000 | Provincial + municipal rebates |
| Roughly what you pay | About $4,475 | Close to double Ottawa |
One thing to plan for: this rebate is a cash cost at closing, paid through the lawyer, and it cannot be rolled into the mortgage. Watch the eligibility too. If your spouse owned a home anywhere in the world while you were together, neither of you qualifies, even if your name was never on title. I confirm this before anyone counts on the money.
The numbers underneath
How much down payment do you need, and what else counts?
The minimum down payment in Ontario is 5% on the first $500,000 of the price and 10% on the portion above $500,000, with 20% required at $1 million or more. On an average Ottawa condo near $412,000 that is about $20,600, and on a townhome near $538,000 a blended minimum of about $28,800. Budget roughly another 1.5% of the price for closing costs.
Two 2024 rule changes that help
From December 15, 2024 the insured-mortgage price cap rose to $1.5 million, and first-time buyers and new-build buyers can take a 30-year amortization instead of 25.
What the 30-year does
It lowers the monthly payment by roughly 8 to 9%, which helps you qualify, at the cost of more interest over the life of the loan. Whether that trade is worth it is a conversation, not a default.
First time home buyer tax credit
You claim $10,000 on your return for the year you buy, which can reduce your federal tax by up to $1,500.
The stress test still applies
Lenders check your income against a higher qualifying rate and your debt ratios, so the amount you qualify for is smaller than a simple rate calculation suggests.
If you want to see the affordability math before you shop, work out how much mortgage you can afford in Ottawa or estimate a payment on my Ottawa mortgage calculator. When you are ready to move, the Ottawa home purchase and preapproval path lays out the documents and timing.
See it in dollars
What is your first-timer stack actually worth?
Enter a home price and a couple of details to see roughly what your first-time buyer stack is worth: the land transfer rebate, the tax credit, the new-build GST rebate if it applies, and the tax-advantaged down payment room you could draw on. Figures are illustrative and dated July 2026, not an approval.
Program stacking estimator
Your first-timer stack
All figures illustrative and dated July 2026. New-build rebates estimate the federal GST portion only.
Cash and rebates
$5,500
Land transfer rebate plus the tax credit. Tick new build to add the GST rebate.
Land transfer rebate$4,000
Home Buyers’ Tax Credit$1,500
New-build GST rebate$0
Down-payment room to draw on$100,000
On a new build the Ontario rebate can add up to $80,000 of the provincial HST on top of the federal figure shown, and the exact amount depends on the builder’s price and structure. I calculate your real provincial rebate when we look at the specific home.
Watch out for these
The biggest first-time buyer mistakes to avoid
Counting on the old incentive. The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is gone. Build your plan on programs that still exist.
Treating approved as affordable. A lender approving you for the maximum does not mean you should spend it. Leave breathing room so a rate bump or a repair does not cause panic.
Assuming registered money moves instantly. FHSA and Home Buyers Plan funds must be liquid and in your account before the lawyer needs the bank draft, and the 90-day RRSP rule is real.
Changing your debt before closing. A new car loan or furniture financing just before closing can break your approval. Sit tight until the keys are yours.
Clear answers
First time home buyer Ontario: frequently asked questions
Who qualifies as a first-time home buyer in Ontario?
Generally you qualify if you are at least 18, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and you have never owned a home anywhere in the world. For the Ontario land transfer tax rebate the rules are strict: if your spouse owned a home while you were together, neither of you can claim it, even if you never held title. Different programs word this slightly differently, so I confirm your eligibility before you count on any of them.
Is the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive still available?
No. The shared-equity First-Time Home Buyer Incentive stopped accepting new applications after March 21, 2024. Many guides, and even an archived government fact sheet, still list it, which causes real confusion. The programs that replaced it in 2026, the new GST and HST rebates, are worth more to most buyers anyway.
Can I use the FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan together?
Yes, and many first-time buyers should. The First Home Savings Account gives you up to $8,000 a year to a $40,000 lifetime limit with no repayment, and the Home Buyers’ Plan lets you withdraw up to $60,000 per person from your RRSP, repaid over 15 years, as long as it sat there 90 days first. Used together they build a large, tax-advantaged down payment.
How much do first-time buyers have to put down in Ontario?
The minimum is 5% on the first $500,000 of the price and 10% on any portion above $500,000, with 20% required at $1 million or more. For an average Ottawa condo near $412,000 that is about $20,600, and for a townhome near $538,000 about $28,800, dated July 2026. Budget roughly 1.5% more for closing costs.
Do first-time buyers pay land transfer tax in Ottawa?
You pay Ontario land transfer tax, but first-time buyers claim a rebate of up to $4,000, which fully covers the tax up to a price of $368,000. Above that you pay the balance. The bonus in Ottawa is that there is no municipal land transfer tax, unlike Toronto, so your closing-day tax bill is lower here.
Is there a fee to work with Nick on a first home?
No. There is no fee for my service on a standard residential mortgage, for the advice, the lender comparison, or the work to closing. You are still free to check your own bank, and you should, comparing costs you nothing. Nick Bachusky is a Mortgage Agent Level 1 with Referral Mortgages Inc., FSRA brokerage licence #13316.
Sources used in this guide
FHSA and Home Buyers’ Plan: Canada Revenue Agency. New GST/HST rebates: CRA first-time home buyers’ rebate. Land transfer tax rebate: Ontario.ca. Discontinued incentive: CMHC. Read the source pages before you decide.
Written by
Nick Bachusky
I am a Mortgage Agent Level 1 with Referral Mortgages Inc., FSRA brokerage licence #13316. After 14 years in mortgages, including time at RBC and TD, I help Ottawa first-time buyers use every program they are entitled to and buy on a payment that fits their life.
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Nick Bachusky, Mortgage Agent Level 1, Referral Mortgages Inc., FSRA brokerage licence #13316