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A new $850,000 condo in Ontario carries $110,500 of HST. Until this spring, a buyer who was not a first-time buyer got at most $24,000 of that back. For agreements signed from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, the whole $110,500 comes back.
That is the Ontario Enhanced New Housing Rebate, announced in the 2026 Ontario Budget on March 25, 2026, paired with a second payment that covers the federal share. It is the largest change to the cost of a new home in Ontario in years, and it has a hard end date. Here is what it is, who qualifies, and what to check before you sign.
What HST on a new home actually is
Resale homes have no HST. New homes bought from a builder do: 13 per cent in Ontario, made up of a 5 per cent federal part and an 8 per cent provincial part. On an $850,000 home that is $42,500 federal and $68,000 provincial.
Two long-standing rebates gave some of it back. The federal new housing rebate phased out completely above $450,000, so on most GTA homes it was worth nothing. The Ontario rebate was capped at $24,000. Builders normally price their homes with the HST and those rebates already netted in, and have you sign the rebates over to them at closing.
What the new program does
The Ontario Budget page sets it out in two pieces.
The provincial part (8 per cent). The Enhanced New Housing Rebate refunds 100 per cent of the provincial HST on a new home priced up to $1,000,000, to a maximum of $80,000. Homes from $1,000,001 to $1,500,000 also get $80,000. From $1,500,001 to $1,850,000 the rebate declines in a straight line to $24,000, and above $1,850,000 you are back to the existing $24,000.
The federal part (5 per cent). The Ontario New Home Affordability Payment covers the federal portion, up to $50,000 per home, for homes priced up to $1,500,000. From there it declines to zero at $1,850,000. The budget says no separate provincial application is needed for this piece.
Put together, a new home priced up to $1,500,000 can see up to $130,000 of HST refunded.
Who qualifies
This is where the program is different from the first-time buyer rebates that came before it.
- Any buyer, not just first-time buyers. You can own a home now and still qualify, as long as the new home will be your primary residence or a relation’s.
- New or substantially renovated homes bought from a builder. That includes a pre-construction condo, a new townhouse and a detached home in a new subdivision. A residential condominium unit is named explicitly.
- Not resale. A home someone has already lived in does not qualify, however recently it was built.
- The Agreement of Purchase and Sale is signed on or after April 1, 2026 and on or before March 31, 2027. The date on the agreement is what counts, not the closing date.
- Construction is substantially completed by December 31, 2031. Pre-construction buys qualify as long as the building finishes by then.
If you are a first-time buyer, you have a choice to make
There is already an Ontario first-time home buyers’ rebate worth up to $80,000 of the provincial HST, for agreements signed on or after March 20, 2025. The budget page says a first-time buyer can claim either that rebate or the enhanced one, but the total of all Ontario rebates on the home is capped at $80,000. In practice the outcome on the provincial side is the same; the enhanced rebate simply does not require you to be a first-time buyer.
Ottawa has its own first-time buyer rebate too. The Canada Revenue Agency’s First-Time Home Buyers’ GST/HST Rebate refunds 100 per cent of the GST on a new home up to $1,000,000, reduced between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000, for agreements signed on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031. To count as a first-time buyer under that program you must be at least 18, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and not have lived in a home you or your spouse or common-law partner owned in the current calendar year or the four before it. Neither of you can have received the rebate before.
The federal rebate runs to 2031. The Ontario enhanced program, and the federal payment that comes with it, ends for agreements after March 31, 2027. If you are not a first-time buyer, that March date is the one that matters.
How you actually get the money
The budget says a builder may pay or credit the rebate to you at closing, the same way builders have always handled the older rebates. There is one wrinkle: builders cannot credit the enhanced rebate on homes where the HST became payable before the federal regulations were made on June 12, 2026. In that case you apply directly to the Canada Revenue Agency after closing.
That distinction is worth a conversation with the builder before you sign, because it decides whether the rebate shows up as a lower price at closing or as a cheque months later.
The questions to ask a builder before you sign
- Is the price you are quoting me HST-included, and which rebates does it assume? A builder who priced the home in February may be netting the old $24,000 rebate. Ask for the calculation in writing.
- Will you credit the enhanced rebate at closing, or do I claim it from the CRA? Get the answer in the agreement, not in an email.
- What is the expected completion date, and what happens if it slips past December 31, 2031? Most projects will finish long before then. Ask anyway.
- Is the agreement dated within the window? An agreement signed on March 31, 2027 qualifies. One signed April 1, 2027 does not.
A real estate lawyer reviews every new-home agreement before it becomes firm. Ask them to confirm the rebate treatment as part of that review.
What this means for the resale-versus-new decision
For years the HST tilted the math toward resale in the GTA. A $900,000 resale house had no HST; a $900,000 new house had $117,000 of it, less a $24,000 rebate. That gap has closed for the next eighteen months, at least on homes up to $1,500,000.
That does not make a new build the right answer for everyone. Pre-construction means a closing date you do not control, a deposit schedule that runs into the tens of thousands over a year or two, and a mortgage rate you cannot lock until much closer to occupancy. Resale means you see the actual home, close in weeks, and can write a home inspection into your offer. What has changed is that the tax no longer decides it for you.
Writing the offer yourself
DirectOffers is built for resale offers on the standard Ontario forms, where the buyer picks the home, sets the conditions and the price, and gets the offer reviewed by a licensed agent before it goes to the seller. A new-home purchase from a builder uses the builder’s own agreement, not the OREA forms, so the rebate above is a conversation you have with the builder and your lawyer.
If you are comparing a new build against a resale home, the resale side is where we can help: you keep up to 80 per cent of the buyer-agent commission at closing, which on a $900,000 home is up to $18,000. Set that against the HST refund on a comparable new build and you have the real number for each side.
