First-time buyer support in Canada is a patchwork assembled over years by different governments with different aims. Some of it moves the needle. Some of it is worth a few hundred dollars and a paragraph in a budget speech. It is worth knowing the difference before you build a plan around any of it.
The Home Buyers Plan, which is the useful one
You can withdraw from your RRSP toward a first home without the withdrawal being taxed as income, provided you repay it over a set schedule. The withdrawal limit has been increased in recent years, and for a couple who both have RRSPs the combined figure is substantial.
Two things people get wrong. The funds must have been in the RRSP for at least ninety days before withdrawal, so you cannot contribute this month and withdraw next month to capture a deduction and a down payment simultaneously. And repayment is real: a portion comes due annually, and if you miss it that portion is added to your taxable income for the year.
Used properly it is the single most effective tool on this list, particularly for people who have been saving in an RRSP by default through work.
The First Home Savings Account
The newer instrument, and for most first-time buyers now the best place to save. Contributions are deductible like an RRSP, and qualifying withdrawals toward a first home are tax-free like a TFSA, with no repayment obligation.
Annual and lifetime contribution limits apply, and the account has to be open before you can use it, so opening one early has value even if you contribute little at first. It can be combined with the Home Buyers Plan.
If you are two or three years away from buying, opening this account is probably the highest-value thing on this page.
The First-Time Home Buyers Tax Credit
A non-refundable federal credit claimed on the return for the year you buy. The stated amount is not what you receive; you receive the credit value, which is a few hundred dollars.
Worth claiming, not worth planning around. Treat it as a small rebate on your legal fees.
GST rebates on new construction
If you buy a newly built home, GST applies to the purchase, and a partial rebate is available below certain price thresholds with the benefit phasing out above them. On a new build this can be a meaningful figure, and it is normally handled by the builder and your lawyer rather than by you directly.
It does not apply to resale housing, which is most purchases. If you are buying new, see buying from a builder for how the rest of that transaction differs.
The rules that actually shape your purchase
More important than any of the programs above.
Down payment. Five percent on the first $500,000, ten percent on the portion between $500,000 and $1.5 million, twenty percent above that. Below twenty percent your mortgage is default-insured and the premium is added to the loan.
The stress test. You qualify at the greater of your contract rate plus two percent or 5.25 percent. This is why the amount you can borrow feels lower than the payment you could obviously afford.
Thirty-year amortisation for first-time buyers on new builds. The rules here were extended, allowing a longer amortisation in specific circumstances. A longer amortisation lowers the monthly payment and increases total interest considerably. It is a cash-flow tool, not a saving.
The four mistakes that cost the most
Budgeting for the down payment and forgetting closing costs. Legal fees, title insurance, registration fees, an appraisal, and property tax adjustments. Alberta has no land transfer tax, which helps enormously, but there is still a bill at the end.
Buying a car first. A car payment reduces your mortgage ceiling by far more than the payment itself suggests, because it consumes the same debt ratio. If you need both, get the mortgage first.
Treating the maximum as the target. The ceiling is calculated for the lender's protection. It knows nothing about childcare, or wanting to keep saving, or the roof needing replacing in year three.
Not checking credit before applying. Errors on credit files are common, and they take weeks to correct. Pull your own report early. How to read it is here.
The order that works
Open an FHSA if you are more than a year out. Check your credit and fix anything wrong. Clear small consumer debt rather than saving the same money. Get a reviewed pre-approval. Then start looking.
Doing it in that order is worth more than any single program on this page. If you are buying in Alberta specifically, the Alberta page covers the provincial costs and timelines.