Home Buyers' Plan in Canada (2026): The $60,000 RRSP Withdrawal, and the 15-Year Bill That Follows

Home Buyers' Plan in Canada (2026): The $60,000 RRSP Withdrawal, and the 15-Year Bill That Follows

Short answer: The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) lets you take up to $60,000 out of your own RRSP in a calendar year, with no tax withheld and nothing added to your income, to buy or build a qualifying first home in Canada. A couple who both qualify can take out $120,000 between them. The catch is printed in the program design: you owe the money back to your RRSP over 15 years, at a minimum of 1/15 of the withdrawal each year, and any part of that minimum you miss is added to your taxable income for that year and is gone from your RRSP for good. The limit was $35,000 until Budget 2024 raised it to $60,000 for withdrawals after April 16, 2024. Eligibility turns on a four-year lookback that counts a home owned by your current spouse or common-law partner, not just homes you owned yourself, and on a 90-day rule that catches last-minute RRSP contributions. Run the eligibility tests before you count the money in a down payment, because a withdrawal that fails the conditions is taxed as an ordinary RRSP withdrawal, at the worst possible moment.

This is education only, not tax, mortgage or legal advice. The Canada Revenue Agency administers the HBP and its conditions govern your file. Check the CRA pages listed at the end of this guide, and your own RRSP issuer's rules, before you withdraw.

The plan at a glance

Feature	Rule
Maximum withdrawal	$60,000 per person in a calendar year ($120,000 per couple if both qualify), for withdrawals after April 16, 2024
Tax on withdrawal	None, if every HBP condition is met. The issuer withholds no tax on an eligible HBP withdrawal
What the money is for	Buying or building a qualifying home in Canada that you intend to occupy as your principal place of residence within one year
First-time buyer test	You must not have occupied a home owned by you, or by your current spouse or common-law partner, at any time in the current calendar year or the previous four calendar years, subject to CRA exceptions described below
Seasoning rule	Amounts you contribute to your RRSP must generally stay in the plan at least 90 days before an HBP withdrawal, or the contribution may not be deductible
Written agreement	Required. You must have a signed agreement to buy or build the qualifying home before you withdraw; a mortgage pre-approval is not an agreement
Acquisition deadline	You must buy or build the qualifying home before October 1 of the year after the year of your first withdrawal
Repayment	15 years, minimum 1/15 of the withdrawal per year, designated on your tax return (Schedule 7). Repayments are not tax-deductible and do not create new RRSP room
Repayment start	The second year after the year of withdrawal. First withdrawals made between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 get a deferred start: the fifth year after the withdrawal year
Missed repayment	The shortfall is included in your income for that year (reported on line 12900) and that slice can no longer be repaid under the plan
Form	T1036, Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP, one form for each RRSP you withdraw from

Two rows in that table do most of the damage in real files. The first-time buyer test reaches back four full calendar years plus the current one, and it follows your partner's ownership as well as yours. The repayment row converts a tax-free withdrawal into a 15-year obligation that starts whether your budget is ready or not. Both get full sections below.

Who qualifies: the four tests

CRA sets a series of conditions, and all of them have to hold at the time of each withdrawal. Four of them decide most cases.

1. You are a resident of Canada. You have to be a resident when you receive an HBP withdrawal, and remain one until the qualifying home is bought or built.

2. You meet the first-time home buyer definition. CRA's test is about occupancy and ownership together. You are not a first-time buyer if, in the current calendar year or any of the four previous calendar years, you occupied a home that you owned, or a home that your current spouse or common-law partner owned. Note what the test does not ask: it does not ask whether your name was on title, and it does not ask about a partner you have since separated from. It asks about your current spouse or partner. A buyer who has never owned anything can still fail this test by living in a home their partner owns, and CRA publishes exactly that case as a common mistake: the withdrawal is then treated as a regular RRSP withdrawal, taxed in full, and re-contributing it needs fresh RRSP room.

There are exceptions, and they matter to real households. CRA provides modified rules for a person buying a home for a person with a disability, or helping such a person buy one, where the first-time buyer test does not apply in the same way. There is also a separation exception: a person who has lived separate and apart from a spouse or partner for at least 90 days because the relationship broke down may be able to qualify again inside the four-year window, provided the other conditions in CRA's rules are met, including rules about selling or disposing of a former home within a set period in some cases. If either situation is yours, read CRA's conditions for your case directly rather than relying on the headline test.

3. You have a written agreement, and you will live in the home. A signed agreement to buy or build a qualifying home in Canada has to exist before the withdrawal. The home has to be one you intend to occupy as your principal place of residence within one year after buying or building it. Buying a rental property with HBP money fails the program, and CRA's published mistakes include a couple who withdrew $60,000 each for an investment property and had both withdrawals taxed as income. Qualifying homes are the ordinary Canadian housing stock: houses, semis, townhouses, condos, mobile homes and shares in a co-operative housing corporation that give a right to own the unit, among the types CRA lists.

4. Your earlier HBP balance is zero. If you participated in the HBP before, your repayable balance has to be zero on January 1 of the year you want to withdraw again. A buyer who still owes money from a first participation and withdraws a second amount has the second withdrawal taxed as a regular RRSP withdrawal. CRA's example of this error has the participant repaying the old balance by December 31 of the year before the new withdrawal, using contributions made in that year or the first 60 days of the next, designated as HBP repayments on the return.

The 90-day rule, and the deduction trap inside it

RRSP money has to season. Contributions generally need to remain in your RRSP for at least 90 days before you withdraw them under the HBP. The sharper edge is the deduction rule behind it: if you contribute an amount and withdraw it under the HBP within 90 days, some or all of that contribution may not be deductible in any year. CRA's calculation compares the balance in your RRSPs just after the withdrawal with what you contributed in the 90-day window; the part of the recent contribution that effectively came straight back out loses its deduction.

The practical version is a calendar rule. If you plan to use the HBP, money intended for the withdrawal should be inside the RRSP at least 91 days before the withdrawal date, counted conservatively. A large RRSP contribution made in February for the tax refund, followed by an April closing, is the standard way households trip this rule. The refund they budgeted into the down payment shrinks or disappears, and the gap appears after the purchase agreement is firm. If your timeline is tight, get the deduction calculation checked against your actual contribution and withdrawal dates before the agreement goes firm, not after.

How the withdrawal works, step by step

1. Confirm eligibility against CRA's full condition list, including the four-year test applied to both you and a current spouse or partner, and confirm any earlier HBP balance is zero.
2. Sign the agreement to buy or build the qualifying home. Keep the date: several deadlines run from the agreement and the acquisition, not from the withdrawal.
3. Check the 90-day seasoning on every RRSP you plan to draw from, and check with each issuer whether the plan itself permits HBP withdrawals. Some locked-in and group RRSPs do not allow them.
4. Complete Form T1036 for each RRSP and give it to that issuer. You can withdraw from more than one of your own RRSPs, provided you are the owner of each one. Withdrawals under the plan generally have to be received in the same calendar year, and the total across all of them cannot pass $60,000.
5. Buy or build the home before October 1 of the year after the year of your first withdrawal, and move in, or intend to move in, as your principal residence within one year of buying or building.
6. Keep the paper: the T1036 copies, the T4RSP slip your issuer sends for the withdrawal year, the agreement and the closing statement. Your CRA notice of assessment and your HBP statement of account will carry your balance and your required repayment for each year once repayments begin.

Spousal RRSPs add one wrinkle worth asking your issuer about before you act: the annuitant of the plan is the spouse, so an HBP withdrawal comes out under the annuitant's own eligibility and limit, not the contributor's.

Stacking the HBP with the FHSA on the same home

The HBP is no longer the only federal down payment account, and the two programs are designed to be usable together. CRA allows a qualifying withdrawal from a First Home Savings Account (FHSA) and an HBP withdrawal from an RRSP for the same qualifying home, as long as the conditions of each program are met at the time of each withdrawal. Our FHSA guide sets out the FHSA rules in full, and our FHSA vs RRSP comparison works through which account to fund first.

The arithmetic of the stack, using program limits only and no assumed investment growth:

Source	Per person	Per couple, both qualifying
FHSA contributions (maximum)	$40,000	$80,000
HBP withdrawal (maximum)	$60,000	$120,000
Combined tax-advantaged down payment funds	$100,000	$200,000

The two halves behave differently after closing, and the difference belongs in the decision. A qualifying FHSA withdrawal is tax-free and is never repaid. The HBP half is a loan from your RRSP: $60,000 withdrawn means $4,000 a year of repayments for 15 years per person, or $8,000 a year for a couple who both took the maximum. One interaction catches people: amounts transferred from an FHSA to an RRSP cannot later be withdrawn under the HBP, and HBP repayments cannot be made into an FHSA. The stack works when the money is in the right accounts before closing. It cannot be reassembled afterward.

There is also an order-of-funding point for buyers still saving. The FHSA gives a deduction on the way in and a tax-free withdrawal for the home, with no repayment. The RRSP route gives a deduction on the way in, a tax-free withdrawal only under the HBP, and a 15-year repayment obligation. For a buyer choosing where the next saved dollar goes, that comparison usually favours filling the FHSA room first, then using RRSP savings already accumulated for the HBP. Personal facts change the answer, in particular a buyer whose RRSP is already large and whose FHSA was opened late, because FHSA room only accumulates from the year the account is opened.

The down payment effect, priced

The reason to accept a 15-year repayment obligation is what a larger down payment buys at the mortgage table. Take a labelled hypothetical purchase at $500,000, with a mortgage rate of 4.50% and a 25-year amortization used only to illustrate the payments. The premium tiers below are the standard CMHC tiers published in our CMHC premium guide: 2.80% of the mortgage at 85% loan-to-value, and no premium at 80%.

	15% down	20% down
Down payment on $500,000	$75,000	$100,000
Mortgage before premium	$425,000	$400,000
CMHC premium	$11,900 (2.80%)	$0
Mortgage with premium added	$436,900	$400,000
Monthly payment at 4.50%, 25 years	$2,418.12	$2,213.89

Getting from 15% to 20% on this price takes an extra $25,000 of down payment, well inside a $60,000 HBP withdrawal for a buyer who has the RRSP savings. It removes an $11,900 premium, cuts the payment by $204.23 a month in this illustration, and lowers the balance that interest is charged on for the life of the loan. That is the strongest form of the HBP case: the withdrawal is not spent, it is converted into a smaller mortgage and a premium that never gets charged.

The weaker form deserves equal time. Using the HBP to stretch to a more expensive home, rather than to de-risk the same home, spends the benefit on a bigger loan. The mortgage still has to pass the stress test and the debt-service limits in our stress test guide, the HBP repayment obligation arrives on top of the larger payment, and the RRSP is smaller in the years when contributions are hardest to make. The plan helps most when it changes the terms of a purchase you could already carry. It helps least when it is the only thing standing between a household and a payment at the edge of its budget.

Do not forget the rest of the cash to close while assembling the down payment. Land transfer tax, legal fees, and the other closing items in our closing costs guide cannot be paid out of a down payment figure that already assumes every dollar goes to the seller, and HBP money arrives under its own timing rules. Our down payment rules guide sets out the minimum down payment tiers the HBP money has to fit into.

Repayment: the 15-year bill, in numbers

Repayment is where the plan collects. The schedule has four moving parts.

When it starts. For most participants, the repayment period begins in the second year after the year of the first withdrawal: withdraw in 2026 and the first repayment year is 2028, with the 15-year period running to 2042. Budget 2024 added a temporary deferral: participants who made their first HBP withdrawal between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 start three years later, in the fifth year after the withdrawal year, so a 2023 first withdrawal starts repaying in 2028 and a 2025 first withdrawal in 2030. Your CRA HBP statement of account shows the start year and required amount for your own file. Use that document over any general table, including this one.

How much each year. The minimum is 1/15 of the total withdrawn, every year for 15 years:

Amount withdrawn	Minimum annual repayment	Monthly equivalent
$20,000	$1,333.33	$111.11
$35,000 (the old limit)	$2,333.33	$194.44
$45,000	$3,000.00	$250.00
$60,000 (the current limit)	$4,000.00	$333.33
$120,000 (couple, both at the maximum)	$8,000.00	$666.67

How a repayment is made. You contribute to your own RRSP in the repayment year, or in the first 60 days of the following year, and designate all or part of that contribution as an HBP repayment on Schedule 7 of your tax return. Designated repayments are not deductible, and they do not use or restore RRSP contribution room: they are returning money that was already sheltered once. Contributions to a spouse's or partner's RRSP, or to a specified pension plan, cannot be designated as your HBP repayment. You can repay more than the minimum in any year, including the whole balance; CRA then spreads the remaining balance over the remaining years, so early repayments lower every later minimum.

What a missed year costs. If you designate less than the required minimum, the difference is included in your income for that year, on line 12900. At a labelled hypothetical marginal tax rate of 30%, missing a full $4,000 repayment adds $1,200 of tax for that year. The larger cost is permanent: the amount included in income is no longer repayable under the plan, so that slice of RRSP room, and the decades of tax-sheltered growth it could have held, does not come back. A household that withdraws the maximum and then misses most years has, in effect, made a taxable RRSP withdrawal in instalments, at whatever tax bracket each year happened to bring.

What the withdrawal costs inside the RRSP

While HBP money is out of the RRSP, it earns nothing in the plan. A simple illustration shows the scale. At a labelled hypothetical return of 5% a year, $60,000 left untouched inside an RRSP for 15 years grows to $124,736. A $60,000 HBP withdrawal repaid at $4,000 a year puts the money back gradually, so part of that growth is recovered as repayments are reinvested, and part is not: the dollars repaid in year 14 miss almost the entire period. The illustration is not a prediction, and a different return changes the figures, but the direction does not change. The HBP trades retirement-account growth for a housing benefit today.

Two households experience that trade very differently. A buyer in their late twenties who withdraws $60,000, repays on schedule and keeps contributing afterward has thirty-plus years for the RRSP to recover, and the premium and interest saved at purchase are real. A buyer in their fifties making the same withdrawal has a shorter runway, a repayment period that can run into the years when RRSPs convert to RRIFs, and less time for replacement contributions to compound. CRA has specific rules for repaying an HBP balance in situations such as reaching age 71, the death of a participant, or becoming a non-resident; in general terms the remaining balance has to be dealt with under those rules rather than on the original 15-year schedule, so a late-career withdrawal needs the endgame checked before it is made, not at 71.

Six files that go wrong

1. The partner's home. A buyer who never owned a home withdraws after living in a partner's owned home inside the four-year window. The buyer fails the first-time test and the withdrawal is taxed in full.
2. The February contribution. A large RRSP contribution made for the refund is withdrawn under the HBP inside 90 days. The deduction on that contribution is reduced or lost, and the refund counted in the down payment does not arrive.
3. The second withdrawal with a balance owing. An earlier HBP balance is not yet zero on January 1 of the withdrawal year. The new withdrawal is taxed as ordinary RRSP income.
4. The rental plan. The home bought is not intended as the buyer's principal residence. The HBP never applied, and the tax treatment follows that fact, however the form was filled in.
5. The cancelled participation that was not cancellable. HBP participation can only be cancelled in limited situations CRA lists, such as not buying or building a qualifying home, or becoming a non-resident before buying. Returning the money outside those situations is treated as a new RRSP contribution, which can create an over-contribution problem on top of everything else.
6. The quiet missed years. No single year looks dramatic: $4,000 designated as income here, $4,000 there. Across fifteen years of misses, the full $60,000 has been taxed slice by slice and the RRSP room is permanently smaller.

Each of these is a paperwork or calendar failure, not a market failure. All six are checkable before a purchase agreement is signed, which is when checking them is cheap.

A pre-withdrawal checklist

• Four-year test run for you and for a current spouse or partner, using occupancy and ownership, not just title records.
• Any earlier HBP balance confirmed at zero on January 1 of this year, from your CRA HBP statement, not from memory.
• Written purchase or build agreement in hand before any withdrawal is requested.
• Every contribution you plan to withdraw has been in the RRSP at least 90 days, with the deduction consequence checked if any has not.
• Each RRSP issuer asked whether that plan permits HBP withdrawals, and Form T1036 completed per issuer.
• Total withdrawals across all your RRSPs in the calendar year at or under $60,000.
• Acquisition date before October 1 of the year after the first withdrawal year, and a real plan to occupy the home as your principal residence within one year.
• FHSA position checked alongside: whether a qualifying FHSA withdrawal is also available for the same home, and no plan that depends on moving FHSA money into the RRSP and back out under the HBP, which the rules do not allow.
• A repayment line in the household budget starting in your actual start year, at 1/15 of the planned withdrawal, tested against the mortgage payment rather than added as an afterthought.
• The rest of the first-time buyer stack reviewed with it: the GST rebate for new homes in our GST rebate guide, land transfer tax relief where your province offers it, and the sequence in our first-time buyer roadmap.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I withdraw under the Home Buyers' Plan in 2026?

Up to $60,000 in a calendar year from your own RRSPs. The limit rose from $35,000 for withdrawals after April 16, 2024 under Budget 2024. If you and your spouse or common-law partner both qualify, each of you can withdraw up to $60,000, for $120,000 combined.

Can I use the Home Buyers' Plan and the FHSA for the same house?

Yes. CRA allows an HBP withdrawal and a qualifying FHSA withdrawal for the same qualifying home, provided the conditions of each program are met at the time of each withdrawal. The FHSA withdrawal is never repaid; the HBP amount is repaid over 15 years. Amounts transferred from an FHSA to an RRSP cannot be used for the HBP.

What is the 90-day rule for the Home Buyers' Plan?

RRSP contributions generally have to stay in the plan at least 90 days before an HBP withdrawal. If you withdraw a contribution made within the previous 90 days, some or all of that contribution may not be deductible in any year. Count seasoning from the contribution date, and check the calculation if your purchase timeline is tight.

When do HBP repayments start?

Generally in the second year after the year of your first withdrawal, then annually for 15 years. Participants whose first withdrawal was made between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 have a deferred start in the fifth year after the withdrawal year. Your CRA HBP statement of account shows your own start year and required annual amount.

What happens if I miss an HBP repayment?

The part of the annual minimum you did not designate as a repayment is included in your taxable income for that year, on line 12900. That amount can no longer be repaid under the plan, so the RRSP room is lost permanently. Repaying more than the minimum in a later year reduces your remaining balance, but it does not undo a previous year's income inclusion.

Are HBP repayments tax-deductible?

No. A designated HBP repayment is a return of money that was already deducted when it was first contributed. It is not deductible again, and it does not use up or restore RRSP contribution room. You make the contribution to your own RRSP and designate it on Schedule 7 of your return.

Can I use the Home Buyers' Plan more than once?

Yes, if you qualify again. Your repayable HBP balance from any earlier participation has to be zero on January 1 of the year of the new withdrawal, and you have to meet the first-time home buyer test again, including the four-year occupancy and ownership lookback, subject to CRA's exceptions such as the separation rules.

Does withdrawing under the HBP affect my mortgage approval?

The HBP changes your down payment, which changes the mortgage size, the loan-to-value and whether a CMHC premium applies. It does not change the stress test or the income you qualify on. Lenders will also ask where the down payment came from and how long it has been in the account, which is a separate reason to have the RRSP history documented before you apply.

Sources

Program rules in this guide were taken from the sources below, read in October 2026. CRA's current pages and your notice of assessment govern your file.

• Canada Revenue Agency, The Home Buyers' Plan hub: eligibility, participating, withdrawing and repaying: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/what-home-buyers-plan.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, common HBP mistakes, covering the first-time buyer test, a partner's owned home, an outstanding earlier balance, cancellation limits and false statements on Form T1036: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/what-home-buyers-plan/avoid-common-home-buyers-plan-mistakes.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, Form T1036, Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/t1036/t1036-fill-11-23e.pdf
• Department of Finance Canada, Budget 2024, which raised the HBP limit from $35,000 to $60,000 for withdrawals after April 16, 2024 and added the temporary repayment deferral for first withdrawals between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025: https://www.budget.canada.ca/2024/home-accueil-eng.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, First Home Savings Account pages, on using an FHSA withdrawal together with the HBP for the same qualifying home and on FHSA-to-RRSP transfers not being usable under the HBP: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account.html

Program rules change, and CRA applies them to your dates and facts. Confirm your eligibility, your balance and your repayment start year with CRA before you withdraw.