How to participate in the Home Buyers' Plan

The Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) is a program that allows you to make a withdrawal from your registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) to buy or build a qualifying home for yourself or for a specified disabled person. The HBP allows you to pay back the amounts withdrawn within a 15-year period.

You can make a withdrawal from more than one RRSP as long as you are the annuitant of each RRSP account. Your RRSP issuer will not withhold tax on withdrawn amounts of $35,000 or less. Some RRSPs, such as locked-in or group RRSPs, do not allow you to make a withdrawal from them.

Certain conditions must be met in order to be eligible to participate in the HBP, including the following:

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

HBP eligibility conditions

In order for withdrawals from your RRSPs to be treated as eligible withdrawals under the HBP, you must meet the conditions outlined below. If you are making withdrawals from your RRSPs under the HBP to buy or build a qualifying home for the benefit of a specified disabled person, or to help a specified disabled person buy or build a qualifying home, you are the one who must meet the conditions outlined below.

The HBP conditions that you must meet are as follows:

A replacement property has to meet the same conditions as a qualifying home. To inform us that you are buying or building a replacement property, send a letter to one of the following addresses:

If your residential address is in Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories or in the following cities in the province of Quebec (Montréal, Québec City, Laval, Sherbrooke, Gatineau and Longueuil), send your request to:

Canada Revenue Agency
Sudbury Tax Centre
Pension Workflow Team
Post Office Box 20000, Station A
Sudbury ON  P3A 5C1

If your residential address is in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or a location in the province of Quebec not listed under the Sudbury Tax Centre, send your request to:

Canada Revenue Agency
Winnipeg Tax Centre
Pension Workflow Team
Post Office Box 14000, Station Main
Winnipeg MB  R3C 3M2

Provide your name, address, and social insurance number, as well as the address of the replacement property. You have to say in the letter that you intend to occupy the replacement property as your principal place of residence within one year after you buy or build it.

Notes

  • You have to fill out Form T1036, Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP for each eligible withdrawal.
  • You are responsible for making sure that all HBP conditions are met (see the eligibility questions in Area 1 of Form T1036, Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP). The CRA may contact you to ask for more information about your HBP withdrawal.
  • If you make an RRSP withdrawal under the HBP and a condition is not met, your RRSP withdrawals may be considered ineligible. If your RRSP withdrawals are considered ineligible, you will have to include part or all of the withdrawals as income on your income tax and benefit return for the year you received the amounts. If we have already assessed your income tax and benefit return for that year, we will reassess it to include the withdrawals.
  • If you made contributions to your RRSPs within 90 days of your HBP withdrawal, your RRSP contribution may not be deductible.
  • If you have previously participated in the HBP, you may be able to do so again if your HBP balance is zero on January 1st of the year during which you plan on making a withdrawal under the HBP, and you meet all the other HBP conditions that apply to your situation. The RRSP, PRPP, or SPP contributions you make in the first 60 days of a year, and designate as HBP repayments for the previous year reduce your HBP balance for purposes of determining whether your balance is zero on January 1st of the current year.

Forms and publications

Page details

Date modified: