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Using Your RRSP’s for Down Payment – Home Buyers Plan

General Trish Pigott 22 Feb

Did you know you can use your RSP’s as a down payment to purchase a home?  

Here’s the details…

What is it?
 
  • It allows you to withdraw up to $25,000 from your RRSP’s to buy or build a qualifying home (you may not be allowed to use locked in RRSP’s)
  • Each applicant can withdraw up to $25,000
  • The RRSP issuer will not withhold tax on these amounts
  • Withdrawals are to be repaid over 15 years
 
Eligibility:
  • You are not considered a first time home buyer if you have owned a home that you have occupied as your principal place of residence
  • Funds must be in your RRSP for at least 92 days
  • You can participate in the HBP more than once if any and all previous RRSP withdrawals are repaid in full.

Do I meet the HBP eligibility conditions?

Or

  • You must have a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home for a related person with a disability, or to help a related person with a disability buy or build a qualifying home (obtaining a pre-approved mortgage does not satisfy this condition).

Note

If you are withdrawing funds from your RRSPs to help a related person with a disability buy or build a qualifying home, it is the related person with a disability who must have entered into such an agreement.

  • You must intend to occupy in the qualifying home as your principal place of residence within one year after buying or building it. If you buy or build a qualifying home for a related person with a disability, or help a related person with a disability buy or build a qualifying home, you must intend that that person occupies the qualifying home as his or her principal place of residence.

In all cases, if you have previously participated in the HBP, you may be able to do so again if your repayable HBP balance on January 1st of the year of the withdrawal is zero and you meet all the other HBP eligibility conditions.

Am I a first-time home buyer?

Unless you are a person with a disability or you are helping a related person with a disability buy or build a qualifying home, you have to be a first-time home buyer to withdraw funds from your RRSP(s) to buy or build a qualifying home.

You are considered a first-time home buyer if, in the four year period, you did not occupy a home that you or your current spouse or common-law partner owned.

Notes

Even if you or your spouse or common-law partner has previously owned a home, you may still be considered a first-time home buyer.

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, it is possible that only one of you is a first-time home buyer

The four-year period

Begins on January 1st of the fourth year before the year you withdraw funds.

Ends 31 days before the date you withdraw the funds.

For example, if you withdraw funds on March 31, 2016, the four-year period begins on January 1, 2012 and ends on February 29, 2016.

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