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First-time home buyers’ tax credit: who qualifies, how to claim

The first-time home buyers’ tax credit is a small, federal, non-refundable claim, and it is easy to miss when you are focused on a down payment and closing costs. The CRA calls it the home buyers’ amount. This article explains who qualifies, what the CRA treats as a qualifying home, how couples and co-buyers share it, which records to keep, and how it differs from the FHSA, the Home Buyers’ Plan and GST/HST rebates.

Sora Accounting & Tax · General information · Editorial policy
Updated · 5 min read

One home purchase, several separate first-buyer programs

Shows a single home purchase leading to separate programs: the federal credit on line 31270, registered-plan withdrawals, and GST/HST rebates for new homes.

Visual labels: Home buyers’ amount; FHSA and Home Buyers’ Plan; New-home GST/HST rebates.

What to take away

  • The home buyers’ amount is claimed on line 31270; the CRA’s 2025 page shows a maximum claim of $10,000.
  • It is a non-refundable federal credit, so it only helps if you have federal tax payable.
  • The first-time buyer test looks at you and your spouse or common-law partner over the year of acquisition and the four years before.

What the credit is, and what it is not

The federal home buyers’ amount is a non-refundable tax credit for buying a qualifying home. On the CRA’s page for the 2025 tax year, the most you can claim is $10,000, entered on line 31270 of your return. That figure is the amount you claim, not the size of the credit. The credit itself is worth a fraction of it, which your tax software calculates.

Because it is non-refundable, it reduces the federal tax you owe but does not produce a refund on its own. If you have little or no tax payable in the year, you may not be able to use it. The CRA page shows no Ontario counterpart, so this is a federal claim only. The page describes the 2025 tax year, so confirm the current amount on the CRA’s page for the year you file.

Who counts as a first-time buyer

You, your spouse or your common-law partner must have acquired a qualifying home, and you must intend to live in it as your principal residence no later than one year after you acquire it. You also have to be a first-time buyer, which the CRA tests in a specific way. Looking back over the year of acquisition and the four years before it, neither you nor your spouse or common-law partner can have owned a home elsewhere, in Canada or abroad, that you lived in.

The test looks at the household, not only at you. If you have never owned property but your spouse owned a condo you lived in three years ago, you probably do not qualify. A similar four-year look-back appears in an FHSA qualifying withdrawal, but each program has its own wording, so do not assume one answer settles the others.

What counts as a qualifying home

The home must be in Canada and registered under the applicable land registration system in your name or your spouse’s or common-law partner’s name. It can be an existing home or one under construction. The CRA lists single-family houses, semi-detached homes, townhouses, mobile homes, condominium units, and apartments in a duplex, triplex, fourplex or apartment building. Shares in a co-operative housing corporation can qualify, except a share that only gives you a right to a tenancy.

Registration matters. If title is held only by a relative who helps you with the purchase, the home is not registered in your name or your spouse’s, and the claim is in doubt. Raise this with your lawyer before closing, not when you are preparing the return.

The disability exception

You do not need to be a first-time buyer if you are eligible for the disability tax credit, or if you bought the home for a related person who is. The purchase must allow that person to live in a home that is more accessible or better suited to their needs. Eligibility is tested for the year the home is acquired.

This depends on an approved disability tax credit certificate. If you think it may apply, start with the disability tax credit application checklist, because the test is tied to a specific year.

Couples, co-buyers and splitting the claim

If only one spouse or common-law partner meets the conditions, that person claims the amount alone, and the credit is not shared unless both qualify. When more than one eligible person acquires the same home, each can claim part of it, but the combined total cannot exceed the maximum for the year.

An illustrative example: two eligible buyers who bought together might claim $5,000 each, or $7,000 and $3,000, provided the total stays within $10,000. Compare both returns before choosing, since the credit only helps a person with enough federal tax payable. Co-buyers who are not spouses are covered by the same combined cap.

How to claim and what to keep

Enter the amount on line 31270 of your return for the year you acquired the home. You do not send supporting documents with the return, but you should keep them in case the CRA asks later.

Keep the purchase agreement, the statement of adjustments and the registered transfer or deed, plus anything showing when you took possession and moved in. If you claim under the disability exception, keep the disability tax credit approval too. Store the records with your return for the standard retention period. The CRA page does not define exactly what “acquired” means for timing, so ask your accountant which year to use if closing and possession fall in different years.

Other first-buyer programs are separate

The home buyers’ amount is one piece of a larger picture, and each program has its own rules. The FHSA allows a tax-free qualifying withdrawal that does not need to be repaid. The Home Buyers’ Plan lets you withdraw from an RRSP and repay it over time, with a withdrawal limit of $60,000. The CRA says you can use the Home Buyers’ Plan and an FHSA qualifying withdrawal for the same home if you meet the conditions at each withdrawal.

On a new home from a builder, a first-time home buyers’ GST/HST rebate can top up the new housing rebate. None of these replaces the others. For the choice between the RRSP route and the FHSA, see our article on the FHSA and the Home Buyers’ Plan, and the 2026 limits article for current room.

If you own a business

The credit is claimed by an individual on a personal return, not by a corporation. If the down payment will come from your corporation, the way you take the money out matters more than the credit. A salary, a dividend and a shareholder loan are taxed differently, and an unpaid loan can be added to your income.

Plan the source of funds before the closing date. Bring your corporate financial statements, your recent assessments and a draft sources-and-uses schedule to a planning conversation. For the full list of what to gather, use the home purchase tax checklist.

Sources & editorial notes

Sources checked October 24, 2026. The examples are illustrative and provide general information. Discuss how the guidance applies to your circumstances with your accountant.

Rules and guidance can change. Use the current official source and confirm the treatment for your facts. To flag an error, contact Sora.