The first-time buyer GST rebate is law, and it is worth up to $50,000

The First-Time Home Buyers’ GST/HST Rebate became law when Bill C-4 received Royal Assent on 12 March 2026. It removes 100 per cent of the federal GST on a qualifying new home valued up to $1 million — a maximum rebate of $50,000 — and phases the relief out on a straight line between $1 million and $1.5 million, reaching zero above that.

What qualifies, and what does not

This is a new-housing measure. A resale home does not qualify simply because the buyer is purchasing their first home: the rebate applies to newly built homes, substantially renovated homes, certain co-operative housing units, and owner-built homes. The agreement of purchase and sale must have been entered into with the builder on or after 20 March 2025 and before 2031.

That distinction matters more in the Greater Toronto Area than almost anywhere else, because the price bands the rebate is built around sit exactly where new construction sits. A one-bedroom or two-bedroom in a new building often falls under the million-dollar line and takes the full relief; a new detached house in most of the region does not.

How it stacks with the Ontario rebate

Ontario has its own new-housing rebate against the provincial portion of the HST, with its own rules and its own ceiling. The two are separate programs assessed separately, and the arithmetic of combining them is the part buyers most often get wrong — usually by assuming one number they read applies to the whole 13 per cent.

Homula’s HST rebate calculator works through both the federal and provincial portions for a given price, and shows which regime produces the better outcome rather than assuming one.