First-Time Homebuyer Rebate (FTHB) and Enhanced New Home Rebate/Ontario New Home Affordability Payment

First-Time Homebuyer Rebate (FTHB) and Enhanced New Home Rebate/Ontario New Home Affordability Payment


With the passing of Bill C-4 (Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act) and the Ontario government’s announcement of the Enhanced New Home Rebate, Realti has been updated to complete these complex calculations.

This article provides a step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure your Purchase and Sale files to ensure the correct rebates are applied.

Understanding the New Rebates

Before entering data, ensure you identify which rebate applies to your file:

New Home Rebate (Legacy): The standard existing GST/HST New Home Rebate for transactions that do not meet the new criteria. The criteria for this rebate can be found in this publication from the CRA.
First-Time Home Buyer Rebate (Federal): Introduced by Bill C-4, this eliminates the 5% GST on newly constructed homes up to $1,000,000 (savings up to $50,000). Valid for agreements entered into between March 20, 2025, and 2031. More information can be found regarding eligibility criteria here.
Realti has this broken out into two subcategories: FTHB (Fed only) and FTHB (Fed + Prov):
    1. FTHB (Fed only): Provides a rebate of the full Federal portion of the HST on homes valued up to $1 million (up to $50,000.00). This rebate uses a sliding scale that reduces to $0.00 at $1.5 million for the federal portion. It also includes the Provincial portion of the New Home Rebate (Legacy), which is limited to a maximum of $24,000.00.
    2. FTHB (Fed + Prov): Provides the full amount of both the federal and provincial portions of the HST on homes valued up to $1 million ($50,000.00 and $80,000.00 respectively). This option features a sliding scale between $1 million and $1.5 million, where the federal portion scales down to zero, while the provincial portion is limited to a minimum of $24,000.00 (the baseline allotment for the provincial portion of the New Home Rebate (Legacy)).
Enhanced New Home Rebate / Ontario New Home Affordability Payment (ENHR/ONHAP): Valid for agreements signed between April 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027. This enhancement to the Ontario New Home Rebate removes the PST on eligible transactions (up to $80,000) for homes valued up to $1 million.
  1. For new homes valued between $1 million and $1.5 million, a flat rebate of $80,000.00 is applied to the provincial part of the HST paid.
  2. For new homes valued between $1.5 million and $1.85 million, a partial rebate is available for the provincial part of the HST paid.
  3. For new homes valued at $1.85 million and above, the existing Ontario New Home Rebate is available at a flat rate of $24,000.00.
Additionally, the province is providing additional relief equivalent to a maximum of the 5% federal portion of the HST (5% Ontario top-up). More information regarding eligibility criteria can be found here

Instructions for Purchase Files

Follow these steps to capture the applicable rebate for your purchaser:
  1. Set New Home Purchased from a Builder to Yes. This can be located under File Configuration on the Basic screen.
  2. Use the Rebate Inc In Contract Price as: dropdown to select the applicable rebate. Select the specific rebate that was included in the contract price at the time of signing.


  3. Navigate to the Contract screen and to the HST & Rebates section.
    1. By default it is indicated that HST is included in the price as this is the standard. If HST is not included in the price, deselect Included in Price. This will then calculate HST at a flat rate and no backouts will be performed.
    2. Verify the Purchaser Entitled to Rebate selection. Ensure that you have selected the appropriate Rebate that your purchaser is entitled to New Home Rebate (Legacy), FTHB  Rebate (Fed only)FTHB  Rebate (Fed + Prov), or ENHR/ONHAP.  *Purchaser eligibility remains the responsibility of the law firm acting for the purchaser.
    3. If you select FTHB or ENHR/ONHAP, fields for Construction Start Date and Construction Substantially Completed Date will appear. These dates will need to be filled in for the applicable rebate forms.
    4. If you have selected ENHR/ONHAP in either of the Rebate Inc in Contract Price as or Purchaser Entitled to Rebate dropdowns a checkbox for Entitled to FTHB and ENHR Rebate will appear. This checkbox will fill out the applicable consent fields as well as the appropriate lines to in order to claim both the First-Time Home Buyer and the Enhanced New Home Rebate on both the GST190 Ontario Rebate Schedule and the GST190 Calculation Worksheet.
    5. Purchaser to Claim Rebate is an existing checkbox that will remove any rebates being credited to the Purchaser from the statement of adjustments. Use this only where the Purchaser will be claiming the rebates on their own and the rebates will not be assigned to the Builder.
    6. The system will automatically populate the Statement of Adjustments with the updated amounts, as well as the updated GST/HST New Housing Rebate Application (GST190E) and RC7190-ON rebate forms.
      Example:
      This is where the New Home Rebate (Legacy) is included in the Contract, and at least one Purchaser is entitled to FTHB Rebate (Fed + Prov).

      


Instructions for Sale Files

If you are representing a builder, the workflow is similar but includes options for more detailed breakdowns of information:
  1. Set New Home Sold by a Builder to Yes. This can be located under File Configuration on the Basic screen.
  2. Use the Rebate Inc In Contract Price as: dropdown to select the applicable rebate. Select the specific rebate that was included in the contract price at the time of signing.



    1. If you are acting on behalf of a Builder, you may choose to activate the New Home Sale Bundle* which will activate more fields for extras as well as a more in depth statement of adjustments. See this article for more information on the New Home Sale Bundle. *additional fees apply

  3. Navigate to the Contract screen and to the HST & Rebates section.
    1. By default it is indicated that HST is included in the price as this is the standard. If HST is not included in the price, deselect Included in Price. This will then calculate HST at a flat rate and no backouts will be performed.
    2. Verify the Purchaser Entitled to Rebate selection. Ensure that you have selected the appropriate Rebate that your purchaser is entitled to New Home Rebate (Legacy), FTHB  Rebate (Fed only), FTHB  Rebate (Fed + Prov), or ENHR/ONHAP.  *Purchaser eligibility remains the responsibility of the law firm acting for the purchaser.
    3. If you select either the FTHB or ENHR/ONHAP, fields for Construction Start Date and Construction Substantially Completed Date will appear. These dates will need to be filled in for the applicable rebate forms.
    4. If you have selected ENHR/ONHAP in either of the Rebate Inc in Contract Price as or Purchaser Entitled to Rebate dropdowns a checkbox for Entitled to FTHB and ENHR Rebate will appear. This checkbox will fill out the applicable consent fields as well as the appropriate lines to in order to claim both the First-Time Home Buyer and the Enhanced New Home Rebate on both the GST190 Ontario Rebate Schedule and the GST190 Calculation Worksheet.
    5. Purchaser to Claim Rebate is an existing checkbox that will remove any rebates being credited to the Purchaser from the statement of adjustments. Use this only where the Purchaser will be claiming the rebates on their own and the rebates will not be assigned to the Builder.
    6. The system will automatically populate the Statement of Adjustments with the updated amounts, as well as forms the updated GST/HST New Housing Rebate Application (GST190E) and RC7190-ON rebate forms.


Indicating a Purchaser is a First Time Home Buyer

A Statutory Declaration has been added to both Purchase and Sale files within Realti. While this document is not a mandatory requirement to complete the transaction, having it signed by the purchaser provides an additional layer of verification that may be desired for your firm's compliance or at the request of a builder. To ensure the document generates correctly with the applicable purchaser’s information, please follow the requirements and steps below:

Requirements
For the Statutory Declaration to generate from document list, the following conditions must be met within the file:
  1. New Home Purchased from or Sold by a Builder: The indicator under File Configuration must say Yes.
  2. Eligible Timeframe: The Agreement of Purchase and Sale must fall between March 20, 2025, and 2031.
  3. Rebate Selection: On the Contract screen, the Purchaser Entitled to Rebate dropdown must be set to either FTHB Rebate (Fed only), FTHB Rebate (Fed + Prov) or ENHR/ONHAP.
How to Activate the Declaration for Purchasers
The Statutory Declaration is managed at the individual level. You must manually "flag" which purchasers are eligible to generate the document.
  1. Navigate to the Buyer in the left hand navigation. Select your Buyer.
  2. Locate the First-Time Home Buyer indicator on the right-hand side of the window.
  3. Click the indicator to activate it for that specific individual.
  4. The indicator is independent for each person. If all purchasers on the file are entitled to the rebate, ensure you repeat this process for each purchaser.


Document Generation
Once the above steps are completed, generate the Statutory Declaration Confirming Rebate Eligibility from the Documents screen. The system will generate a separate Statutory Declaration for each purchaser you have activated as a First-Time Home Buyer.