GST/HST New Housing Rebate: Who Qualifies and How to Claim

The GST/HST New Housing Rebate lets individuals recover part of the federal GST (or the federal portion of HST) paid when they buy, build, or substantially renovate a home to live in as their primary residence. The federal rebate is worth up to $6,300, and in HST provinces a separate provincial rebate can add thousands more. You claim it on Form GST190 or GST191, and you have two years from your base date to file.

Who Can Claim It

The rebate is for individuals only. Corporations, partnerships, and trusts do not qualify. At least one buyer, or a close relation of a buyer, must intend to use the home as their primary residence — the CRA reads that as living there on a permanent basis, which rules out properties bought purely to flip or to rent.¹

Qualifying properties include detached and semi-detached houses, townhouses, condominiums, mobile homes, and floating homes. For mobile and floating homes, you or your relation must be the first person to occupy the home after construction or substantial renovation began.¹

When two or more people buy together, the rebate is still available as long as any one buyer, or a relation of any buyer, will use the property as a primary home. All purchasers must be individuals, and only one rebate application is filed per property.

How Much the Federal Rebate Is Worth

The federal amount depends on the fair market value of the home, land included:

$350,000 or less: 36% of the federal tax paid, up to a maximum of $6,300.
$350,001 to $449,999: A reduced rebate that shrinks proportionally as the value climbs. The CRA worksheet does the math.
$450,000 or more: No federal rebate.

Homes above $450,000 lose the federal rebate entirely, but the provincial rebate in HST provinces has its own rules and can still apply.¹

The Provincial Rebate on Top

Ontario

Ontario’s provincial new housing rebate is up to $24,000 for homes purchased from a builder when HST applied to both the home and the land. Owner-builders who did not pay HST on the land can claim up to $16,080. The Ontario rebate does not phase out based on fair market value under the existing rules.¹

Ontario has announced an expansion running from April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027. Under the expanded program, eligible buyers of new homes valued up to $1 million can receive a maximum rebate of $130,000. That maximum holds for homes valued up to $1.5 million, then decreases proportionally, reaching a floor of $24,000 at $1.85 million and above. The buyer must be acquiring the home as a primary residence or as a residential rental property.²

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia offers a provincial rebate on part of the provincial HST paid to purchase or construct a new home, but not for substantial renovations. Its First-Time Home Buyers rebate is administered by Service Nova Scotia directly, not through the CRA.¹

Substantial Renovations and Major Additions

A brand-new home is not the only path in. A substantial renovation of an existing home can qualify, but the bar is high: 90% or more of the interior of the existing building must be removed or replaced. The test measures the physical extent of the work, not what you spent.³

Some structural elements are excluded from the 90% calculation: the foundation, exterior walls, interior supporting walls, floors, roof, and staircases. You do not have to remove them, but if you do replace any, that work counts toward the threshold. Only habitable spaces matter — garages, crawl spaces, and utility areas are ignored.³

Adding a new wing or extra rooms usually does not qualify, because the test asks what happened to the existing structure. An addition can qualify only if the result is essentially a new home. The CRA looks for three things: the addition at least doubles the habitable floor space; at least 50% of the existing home’s rooms undergo significant physical changes such as wall removal or plumbing replacement; and the existing home no longer functions as a self-contained unit because it has been integrated with the addition.³

How to Claim

The Easy Path: Assign the Rebate to Your Builder

Most buyers who purchase from a builder never file the rebate themselves. You and the builder agree that the builder will credit the rebate amount against your purchase price at closing, cutting what you owe upfront. The builder then submits Form GST190 to the CRA on your behalf. You sign the form in the presence of the builder or your lawyer, typically at closing.⁴

There is a catch. If you turn out not to be eligible, for example because you rent the property instead of living in it, both you and the builder are jointly liable to repay the rebate to the CRA.¹

Filing It Yourself

If you did not assign the rebate to a builder, you file on your own. The form depends on how you got the home:

Form GST190 for homes purchased from a builder, including new condos and builder-constructed houses on the builder’s land.⁵
Form GST191 for owner-built homes, where you hired contractors directly or acted as your own general contractor on land you already owned.

Both forms need the legal description of the property from your deed or land registry documents, the date of possession or substantial completion, and detailed financials from your purchase agreement or construction invoices. The integrated worksheets walk through the calculation. Getting the address or legal description wrong is one of the most common reasons applications are rejected outright.

You can file electronically through CRA My Account. Owner-builders upload Form GST191-WS, the Construction Summary Worksheet, first, then complete Form GST191 online. Paper applications go to your regional tax centre.¹

Do not send supporting documents with the application. Keep the originals — invoices, contracts, receipts — for six years. The CRA can ask to see them at any point to verify your claim.¹

The Two-Year Deadline

You have two years from your base date to file. The base date depends on how you acquired the home:¹

Purchased from a builder: generally the day ownership is transferred to you.
Owner-built home: the earlier of the day you or a relation first occupies the home or the day construction is substantially completed.⁶

Miss the window and the rebate is gone. There is no extension.

If You Built the Home Yourself

Owner-built claims work a little differently. Your rebate can include GST/HST paid to any supplier for qualifying property and services, not just amounts paid to a single builder. The fair market value that drives the rebate is the value of the completed home, not the sum of your construction costs.⁶

A professional appraisal is not required, but if the CRA disagrees with your number it can commission its own. When you do get an appraisal, make sure it specifies whether the value includes or excludes GST/HST, because the rebate calculation uses the pre-tax figure.⁷

If You Plan to Rent the Property

Buying or building a home to rent to tenants disqualifies you from the New Housing Rebate. In that case, look at the GST/HST New Residential Rental Property (NRRP) Rebate instead. It uses similar fair market value thresholds — full rebate up to $350,000, phased reduction to $450,000, nothing above that — but its eligibility rules focus on long-term residential leasing.⁸ The NRRP rebate uses Form GST524.⁹

If the Claim Turns Out to Be Wrong

If you receive a rebate you were not entitled to, the CRA requires repayment. When the rebate was assigned to a builder, both you and the builder are jointly liable.¹

A knowingly false claim gets worse. A gross negligence penalty under section 285 of the Excise Tax Act equals the greater of $250 or 25% of the excess amount claimed. Criminal prosecution is possible: summary conviction carries a fine of 50% to 200% of the rebate amount, with up to two years of imprisonment. Prosecution by indictment raises the minimum fine to 100% of the amount and the maximum prison term to five years.¹⁰

The primary residence requirement is the most common audit trigger. If you claimed the rebate on a home you never moved into, or you rented it out shortly after closing, expect the CRA to reassess. Utility bills, a driver’s licence showing the address, and other proof of actual occupancy can be what separates keeping the rebate from repaying it with interest.

1
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST New Housing Rebate
2
Ontario Newsroom. Ontario Expanding HST Rebate to Lower the Cost of New Homes
3
Canada Revenue Agency. Substantial Renovations and the GST/HST New Housing Rebate
4
Canada Revenue Agency. Applying for the Rebate – Home Purchased From a Builder
5
Canada Revenue Agency. GST190 GST/HST New Housing Rebate Application for Houses Purchased from a Builder
6
Canada Revenue Agency. Amounts Eligible for Section 256 GST New Housing Rebate
7
Canada Revenue Agency. Fair Market Value for Purposes of Part IX of the Excise Tax Act
8
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST New Residential Rental Property Rebate
9
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST New Residential Rental Property Rebate Application
10
Canada Revenue Agency. Penalties and Interest – GST/HST Memorandum 16.2