Grants and Incentive for First Time Home Buyers in British Columbia

As a first time home buyer, there are several progams available to you to make buying a home more affordable. Below I've listed the programs available to first time home buyers in British Columbia. 

Government of Canada first time home buyer incentives and rebates

Here are a list of the incentives and rebates offered by the federal government for first time home buyers:

First-Time Home Buyer Incentive

The FTHBI, or First-Time Home Buyer Incentive helps Canadians across the country purchase their first homes. The program offers either 5% or 10% of a buyer's home’s original purchase price in order to put toward down payment costs. This addition decreases mortgage carrying expenses which makes homeownership more affordable for buyers overall!

The qualifying household Income for the program is $150,000 and a borrowing limit up to 4.5x income. This means if you make $120,000 per year, you could qualify for a $520,000 mortgage under this program.

Eligibility and Savings Calculator - Use this to see your eligability and see what you would qualify for.

Home Buyers' Amount

The Home Buyers’ Amount is a program for first time home buyers that offers a $5,000 non-refundable income tax credit amount on a qualifying home acquired during the year. For an eligible individual, the credit will provide up to $750 in federal tax relief.

Home Buyers' Plan (HBP)

The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) is a government program that allows you to withdraw money from a Registered Retirement Savings Plan or RRSP in order to purchase or build your own home. By using the HBP, individuals can pull up to $35,000 out of their account for a home purchase. This is per person, so a couple can pull up to $75,000 for their home purchase.

GST/HST New Housing Rebate

The new housing rebate is for 36% of the GST that is charged when buying a new construction (or substantially renovated) home in Canada. There are caps on the maximum value of the home and the rebate.

To get the full 36% you need to purchase a home that has a value of $350,000 or less. This means the maximum rebate could be $6,300. If you purchase a home between $350,000 and $450,000 the rebate still applies, it is just capped at $6300.

In order to be considered for this rebate:

You bought new or renovated housing from a builder as your primary residence

You also qualify if you purchased shares in co-op housing corporations and used it as your primary place of residency.

British Columbia first time homebuyer incentives and rebate

Below are the programs available to British Columbia first time home buyers:

B.C. First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

In BC as a first time home buyer you can get a rebate on the land transfer tax when purchasing a property. This tax credit has a price limit, though.

If you purchase a home for $500,000 and less, you will not pay any property transfer tax (PTT). The property transfer tax is 1% on the first $200,000 in value, 2% from $200,000 to $2,000,000 and 3% on any value greater than $2,000,000

This means that the tax credit is up to an $8,000 savings. Not only that, PTT has to be paid out of savings, you cannot roll this into your mortgage or get a loan for it, so it's a big money saver.

There is a partial tax credit between $500,000 and $525,000 but this credit decreases fairly rapidly after you pass $500,000. 

If you are looking to buy your first home in British Columbia, there are plenty of grants and incentives available. We’ve listed the most popular ones below so that you can get started with your search! You may be eligible for any or all of these government programs if you meet their eligibility requirements. So don't wait - start searching today!