Buying your first home in New Westminster

About this brief

This brief covers the tax exemptions, rebates and savings-account programs open to you on a first home in New Westminster under $500,000. For each one, what it is worth, who has to file it, and the deadline that ends it. Together they come to roughly $11,000 on a resale and $36,000 on a new build. You lose about $8,000 of that if you do not tell your notary before the sale goes through.

Every figure traces to a government page you can open yourself. The source list, and the check I ran against it, are in § 13.

Contents

Some of this needs a professional first

Bottom line

1. BC's test is the hardest one here: have you ever owned a home you lived in, anywhere in the world. Not in the last four years. Ever. You pass it, and you pass on citizenship and BC residency too. Every other program asks for less, so clearing BC's clears them.
2. The property transfer tax exemption saves you $7,980 on a $499,000 purchase. Your notary files it at registration. Nothing about it happens automatically, and there is no way to claim it afterwards on a tax return.
3. New construction is worth about $25,000 more than resale, because the GST charged on a new build comes back to you in full. It turns on the date on the builder's contract, which is why that is one of the questions to ask.
4. Open a First Home Savings Account before you buy. Once you own a home the door shuts permanently. CRA imposes no minimum holding period, so money can go in for the deduction and come straight back out for the purchase.
5. Eligibility is settled; the risk is in the timing. A 92-day move-in clock, a one-year occupancy hold, and two separate October 1 withdrawal deadlines. On a presale, withdrawing too early is the expensive mistake.

If someone tells you the paperwork is handled automatically, or that the exemption shows up on its own, they are wrong, and that mistake can cost eight thousand dollars. Every rule quoted here points to a government page you can read yourself.

The property transfer tax exemption

Verdict

You likely qualify for the full exemption, and on a resale it is the largest single item in this brief. Without it you pay $7,980 in tax on a $499,000 purchase. Put the claim to your notary in writing before the return is filed. Nobody adds it for you.

What I'd do

• Email your notary or lawyer, before the property transfer tax return is prepared, stating that you are a first-time buyer claiming the exemption. Ask them to confirm it in writing.
• BC's test is about a registered interest, which is not the same thing as having bought a home. If you have ever held a registered interest in a home anywhere, including one you inherited or co-owned on paper, say so to your notary now.
• If it is somehow missed at registration, it is recoverable: you "may apply for a refund from the first anniversary to 18 months after the registration date" using FIN 265, which is the backstop if the claim is missed at registration.

The rule

British Columbia charges property transfer tax on every taxable transaction at:

"1% of the fair market value up to and including $200,000" and "2% of the fair market value greater than $200,000 and up to and including $2,000,000"

Province of British Columbia — Property transfer tax, § General property transfer tax

The first time home buyers' program removes it. To qualify at the time the property is registered you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, have lived in BC for at least a year (or filed two BC returns in the last six years), and:

"Have never owned a registered interest in a property that was your principal residence anywhere in the world at any time"

Province of British Columbia — First time home buyers' program

The property must be your principal residence, 0.5 hectares or smaller, and "Have a fair market value of $835,000 or less". Where all of that holds, the purchaser is "exempt from property transfer tax on the first $500,000 of the purchase price".

What it comes to

Resale or new construction

Verdict

Property transfer tax is $0 on either option at this price. The whole difference is GST, worth roughly $25,000 on a new build. That is the number to have in hand if a new build lands on your list.

What I'd do

• If any new build is in scope, ask the builder two questions in writing: what date the purchase agreement is dated, and whether the advertised price includes GST.
• The builder normally credits the rebate when the sale completes, so you never claim it yourself. Confirm which way it works, so you are not financing $24,950 you expected to come off the price.

The rule

Resale residential property carries no GST. New construction does, at 5%. The First-Time Home Buyers' GST/HST rebate, in force since 2025, returns it: for new homes valued "At or below $1 million, the rebate is up to 100%", to a maximum rebate of $50,000.

The date on the builder's contract decides it. You must have "entered into the agreement of purchase and sale for the home with the builder on or after March 20, 2025" and before 2031, and you must be the first person to occupy the home.

What it comes to

The FHSA range is the only moving part: it depends on your income. The table in § 7 shows what it comes to at $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000.

The FHSA move

Verdict

Open a First Home Savings Account this week, even funded with a token amount. It is the only account that deducts on the way in like an RRSP and comes out tax-free like a TFSA, with nothing to repay afterwards. On a full $8,000 contribution that is $1,568 to $2,256 back at your income, and you still spend the whole $8,000 on the home. Its door closes permanently the day you own one.

What I'd do

• Open it at your existing bank. Setup is usually same-day, and a brokerage can take a week. You are only parking the money anyway.
• Hold it as cash — a savings deposit or a GIC that matures before you buy, not mutual funds, ETFs, stocks or anything else whose value can fall — so the balance on withdrawal day is the balance you put in. Money you are spending in a few weeks has no time to recover from a drop, and a few weeks of growth would not have changed the down payment anyway.

The rule

"Your FHSA participation room in the first year you open your FHSA is $8,000". CRA defines the lifetime FHSA limit as "Generally, this is the most you can contribute to your FHSAs or transfer from your RRSPs to your FHSAs in your lifetime", and sets it at $40,000. Contributions are deductible. A qualifying withdrawal to buy a first home is tax-free and never repaid. CRA is explicit that the money does not have to sit:

"There is no minimum number of days that contributions or transfers to your FHSAs must stay in your FHSAs before you can use them as a qualifying withdrawal"

Canada Revenue Agency — Withdrawals and transfers out of your FHSAs

A qualifying withdrawal requires a written agreement to buy, form RC725 given to your issuer, and that "You must not have acquired the qualifying home more than 30 days before making the withdrawal".

What it comes to

Contribute up to $8,000, deduct it, withdraw it tax-free for the down payment. $8,000 is the annual ceiling, not a required amount — put in what you can. The deduction comes off your taxable income, so what it is worth is your combined federal and BC marginal rate multiplied by whatever you actually contribute. The figures below assume the full $8,000; half of it is worth half as much. At 2026 rates, for a BC resident:

$75,000 and $100,000 give the same figure because the whole $8,000 sits inside one bracket at both: federally the 20.5% band runs to $117,045, and BC's 7.7% band to $100,728. If your income sits just above a bracket edge, part of the deduction lands in the band below and the refund falls between these figures. The money is out of your hands for days, not years.

If you opened an FHSA in an earlier year and never funded it, unused room carries forward to a maximum of $8,000, so up to $16,000 of room may be available this year — which at 28.2% is $4,512 rather than $2,256. Check CRA My Account.

RRSP withdrawal timing

Verdict

The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) lets you take up to $60,000 out of an RRSP tax-free. The timing is the part to watch, and on a presale it is where this goes wrong.

The rule

"Currently, the HBP withdrawal limit is $60,000." You must have a written agreement to buy at the time of withdrawal, and:

"Obtaining a pre-approved mortgage is not considered a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home"

Canada Revenue Agency — How to participate in the Home Buyers' Plan

The home "must be acquired or built before October 1st of the year after the year of the first withdrawal", or you must cancel your participation. The FHSA carries its own version of the same clock: the completion date must fall before October 1 of the year following the withdrawal.

What it does to your taxes

You do not pay income tax on the withdrawal. It does not appear on your return, does not move your marginal rate, and does not touch income-tested benefits — the deduction was already taken when the money went into the RRSP, at the same combined rates as the table in § 7, so $8,000 contributed is the same $1,568 to $2,256 back.

Two things make this different from the FHSA.

• Contribute too close to the withdrawal and the deduction disappears. CRA: "If you made contributions to your RRSPs during the 89-day period before you withdrew the amount for your HBP withdrawal, your RRSP contribution may not be deductible". The FHSA has no equivalent rule — CRA states outright that there is no minimum holding period, quoted in § 7. So the contribute-then-withdraw move works in an FHSA and does not work in an RRSP.
• An HBP withdrawal is a loan to yourself. You have up to 15 years to put it back, CRA sends you a statement each year naming what is due, and you keep filing a return "until you have repaid all of your HBP withdrawals or included them in your income" — a year's repayment you miss becomes income in that year. An FHSA withdrawal is never repaid and never taxed.

Neither is a reason to avoid the HBP. It is the difference between the two, and it is why the FHSA gets funded first.

What it comes to

On a resale with a normal completion this is a non-issue. Sign, withdraw, buy, all within weeks. On a presale that completes in two years, a withdrawal made at deposit blows straight through the deadline and has to be unwound. Withdraw near completion.

1. NowOpen the FHSA. The door closes the day you own a home. Contribute up to your room.
2. Offer acceptedWritten purchase agreement exists. Only from this point can you withdraw. A pre-approval does not count.
3. Before completionFile T1036 for the RRSP withdrawal and RC725 for the FHSA. Not more than 30 days after you acquire the home.
4. At registrationNotary files the property transfer tax return with the first-time buyers' exemption claimed.
5. Within 92 daysMove in. Hard condition of the exemption.
6. First anniversaryStill living there. Occupancy must be continuous to this date or part of the exemption claws back.
7. Next tax returnClaim the home buyers' amount on line 31270, and apply to the Province for the home owner grant each year.

Credits and the annual grant

Two more claims come after you own the place.

The home buyers' amount. "You can claim up to $10,000 for the purchase of a qualifying home" as a non-refundable credit on line 31270 of your next return. The cash value is that $10,000 multiplied by the lowest federal personal rate, which for 2026 is 14% — so $1,400.

The BC home owner grant. "the regular grant amount is $570", reducing property tax on your principal residence, every year you live there. Apply directly to the Province. The City of New Westminster no longer takes these applications. People lose by assuming it's automatic.

Three definitions of "first-time"

"First-time home buyer" means three different things across the programs in this brief, and the three get treated as one. You satisfy all of them. If you ever discuss this with someone who does not, the difference between the tests is the whole conversation.

The practical consequence is that someone who sold a condo six years ago fails the BC exemption permanently but passes every federal program. Someone whose spouse owns a home passes BC's test but fails the federal ones. The tests point in opposite directions, which is why reasoning from one to another does not work.

Programs that no longer exist

Both of these still appear in blog posts, mortgage-broker PDFs and well-meaning advice. Neither is available, and in each case the provider says so on its own page.

• CMHC First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, the shared-equity program. CMHC's own page carries the notice: "The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is no longer accepting applications."
• BC HOME Partnership, the province's down-payment loan of up to $37,500. BC Housing's own page says it "stopped accepting new applications on March 31, 2018".

What this brief is not

This brief is not tax, legal or financial advice. I am not advising you that you do or do not qualify for any specific program. I am showing you the published rules and where you appear to sit against them.

Where I write "what I'd do", that means what I would do if it were my decision. It does not mean the law requires it. For anything marked as needing a professional, take it to one before you act, and hand them this brief so they start from the published rules.

Dollar figures are computed from published rates against an assumed $499,000 purchase price. Your actual price, your marginal tax rate, and the current lowest federal bracket may change the results.

How to verify all of it

Every quotation in this brief was checked word for word against the live government page it names, and each one links to that page where it appears.

Do your own due diligence before you act on any of it. Open the page, read the rule where it sits, and take anything marked for a professional to one. A quote can be exact and still sit under a conclusion you would draw differently.

Primary sources

Claim the exemption, open the FHSA

You likely qualify for all of it, and you clear the hardest test any of these programs sets. On a resale the $7,980 property transfer tax exemption is the one to get right, and it needs two things: one instruction to your notary, and one honest declaration. Open the FHSA before you buy, because that door does not reopen. Withdraw registered money only after the purchase agreement exists, and on a presale only near completion. Then move in within 92 days and stay a year.

Everything above traces to a page you can open yourself, listed in § 13. Take the items marked as needing a professional to one before you act, and take this brief with you so they start from the published rules.