Home Buyers’ Amount 2026: Claim Up to $1,500 (Canada)

Quick Answer

Why the Home Buyers’ Amount catches so many buyers off guard

Sitting at the kitchen table with a stack of closing documents and last year's tax slips is a strange kind of milestone. You bought your first home in 2025, the mortgage is signed, and now the tax return is asking questions you did not have to think about a year ago. One of those questions unlocks a small but real benefit: the Home Buyers' Amount.

For eligible first-time buyers, this credit typically returns up to $1,500 in federal tax relief. It is one of the easiest federal benefits to claim, and one of the most commonly missed. Some buyers skip it because they never heard of line 31270. Others assume it is a rebate cheque that never arrives.

This guide walks through what the Home Buyers' Amount is, who qualifies, how to claim it, and how it stacks with the FHSA, the Home Buyers' Plan, and the GST rebate in 2026.

Quick Start — pick your path

Depending on where you are in the process, different parts of this article may matter more.

What the Home Buyers’ Amount actually is

The credit has been part of Canada’s federal tax system since 2009. In the 2022 federal budget, the base claim amount was doubled from $5,000 to $10,000, raising the maximum credit from $750 to $1,500.

Tax preparers, banks, and older articles sometimes refer to this credit as the First-Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit, or HBTC. The Canada Revenue Agency calls it the Home Buyers’ Amount on the actual tax return. Both names refer to the same benefit. For the earlier tax-side context, see the Pegasus First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit related read.

The credit reduces federal tax owing but cannot create a refund on its own.

Who qualifies — the four-year rule and the disability exception

The four-year rule is stricter than many buyers assume. If either spouse owned and lived in a principal residence at any point in the four calendar years preceding your purchase, the first-time buyer path typically does not apply. The window looks backward from the year of purchase and includes both partners’ ownership history.

The disability exception is important. Buyers who qualify for the Disability Tax Credit, or who are buying a home to benefit a related person who qualifies, can claim the Home Buyers’ Amount even if they have owned a home before. The new home must typically be more suitable for the person’s needs than their previous one.

Complex files are where broker guidance matters most. Razi Khan, Founder and Mortgage Broker at Pegasus works with clients whose eligibility hinges on paperwork many buyers never see — disability documentation, ownership-history complications, or common-law partnership timing.

If you filed a past return without claiming it, the CRA typically allows a T1 adjustment for up to ten prior years.

How much money you actually get

The arithmetic is straightforward. You enter $10,000 on line 31270, the Canada Revenue Agency applies the lowest federal tax rate — currently 15% — and the resulting $1,500 non-refundable credit reduces your federal tax owing for the year.

The word "non-refundable" carries real weight here. If your federal tax owing for the year is $2,000, the credit brings it down to $500. If your federal tax owing is $900, the credit brings it to zero and the remaining $600 in credit value does not become a refund. It cannot be carried forward to a future year either. You either use it in the year of purchase or lose the unused portion.

For most first-time buyers with a full year of taxable employment income, the useful value typically lands close to the full $1,500. For buyers on parental leave, between jobs, or with lower taxable income, the useful value may be lower.

In the broader 2026 first-time buyer benefit stack, the $1,500 is a meaningful piece but not the largest one.

Step-by-step — how to claim it

Six steps typically cover the full claim:

1. 1
   Confirm eligibilityUse the four-year rule or the disability exception outlined above.
2. 2
   Confirm the home qualifiesSingle-family homes, semi-detached houses, townhouses, condo units, apartments, mobile homes, and shares in a co-operative housing corporation that give the right to occupy a unit all typically qualify.
3. 3
   Gather your closing documentsThe statement of adjustments, the deed or title registration, and the purchase agreement. These are not submitted with the return, but the CRA may request them for verification.
4. 4
   Enter $10,000 on line 31270Do this on your federal tax return for the year the home was acquired.
5. 5
   Decide whether to split the claimBetween your spouse or common-law partner. The combined total cannot exceed $10,000.
6. 6
   Keep records for six yearsIn case of a CRA review.

If you are earlier in the process and still shopping for a mortgage, an instant pre-approval certificate can typically be issued in minutes.

Stacking the Home Buyers’ Amount with the FHSA, HBP, and GST rebate

The Home Buyers’ Amount rarely stands alone in a first-time buyer’s plan. It stacks with several other 2026 federal benefits, each with different rules and timing.

The First Home Savings Account (FHSA), fully in force since 2023, lets first-time buyers contribute up to $8,000 per year to a lifetime maximum of $40,000. Contributions are deducted from taxable income, and qualifying withdrawals for a first home come out tax-free.

The Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) allows first-time buyers to withdraw up to $60,000 from an RRSP, with repayment over 15 years starting the second year after withdrawal. The full breakdown is covered in the Pegasus RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan 2026 guide.

The GST/HST New Housing Rebate typically returns a portion of the federal sales tax paid on a qualifying new build. A separate First-Time Home Buyer GST Rebate: Who Qualifies 2026? with higher price thresholds has been proposed and is not yet in force at time of publication.

The former CMHC First-Time Home Buyer Incentive was retired on March 31, 2024, and is no longer available for new applications.

All of these benefits typically stack with the Home Buyers’ Amount. Each has its own eligibility rules, so a full review before closing often reveals more room than buyers expect.

Province-by-province layering

Provinces add their own first-time buyer benefits on top of the federal Home Buyers’ Amount. The combination often matters more than the federal credit alone.

Ontario offers a Land Transfer Tax refund of up to $4,000 for eligible first-time buyers. Buyers in the City of Toronto can also claim a separate municipal Land Transfer Tax rebate of up to $4,475, which stacks with the provincial rebate.

British Columbia offers a Property Transfer Tax exemption for eligible first-time buyers on qualifying homes, with partial exemptions available at higher purchase prices. The Pegasus First-Time Home Buyer Incentives in BC & Ontario 2026 guide covers both in detail.

Quebec offers its own parallel Home Buyers’ Tax Credit, and QST rebates on new builds are administered by Revenu Québec rather than the Canada Revenue Agency. Note that Quebec property purchases must close before a notary, which adds a step to closing timelines and costs.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba do not charge a Property Transfer Tax at all, so first-time buyer benefits at the provincial level in the Prairies are typically more limited.

Common mistakes buyers make

A few avoidable errors show up over and over in first-time buyer files. The most common ones typically involve:

• •Forgetting to claim the credit entirely, especially when using tax software that does not prompt for it.
• •Claiming when a spouse or common-law partner owned a home within the four-year window, which typically disqualifies both partners.
• •Both spouses claiming $10,000 each. The combined claim cannot exceed $10,000.
• •Expecting a $1,500 refund cheque when the federal tax owing for the year is less than $1,500. The credit reduces tax owing but does not create a refund.
• •Treating the credit as free cash available at closing. The money arrives at tax time, often months after possession.
• •Missing the provincial rebates that stack on top of the federal credit.

The Pegasus guide to hidden costs first-time homebuyers miss in Canada covers other budget surprises worth planning for.

Frequently asked questions

About the author

Razi Khan

Founder, CEO & Licensed Mortgage Broker · Pegasus Mortgage Lending · Toronto, Ontario · FSRA Lic # 11479

Razi Khan is the Founder, CEO, and a licensed Mortgage Broker at Pegasus Mortgage Lending Center Inc., based in Toronto. With over 20 years of experience in the Canadian mortgage industry, Razi has personally guided more than 3,000 clients through some of the most complex and high-stakes financial decisions of their lives — from first-time purchases in the GTA to refinancing strategies, alternative lending solutions, and cross-border mortgages for Canadians buying in the United States.

Razi founded Pegasus in October 2008, launching the brokerage at the height of a global financial crisis. He works across the full spectrum of borrower profiles, with particular expertise in complex files including self-employed borrowers, credit-challenged clients, and investors building multi-property portfolios.

Learn more about Razi Khan →

Sources & References

1. Canada Revenue Agency — Line 31270 – Home buyers' amount
2. Canada Revenue Agency — Filing your tax return
3. Department of Finance Canada — First Home Savings Account
4. Canada Revenue Agency — Home Buyers' Plan (HBP)
5. Government of Ontario — Land Transfer Tax Refund for First-Time Homebuyers
6. Government of British Columbia — First Time Home Buyers' Program
7. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (retired 2024)