There is a lot of new construction going up around Kelowna, West Kelowna and Vernon right now, and one of the most useful things a first-time buyer can know before signing with a builder is that the federal first-time home buyers’ GST/HST rebate is live. The Canada Revenue Agency opened applications earlier this year, and the amounts involved belong in your planning from day one.
Here is how it works, because eligibility is set by the date you sign with the builder, and because it stacks with a couple of other things that apply to new builds in BC.
What the rebate does
The rebate applies to a newly built home you are buying as your primary residence. At a value of $1 million or less, the CRA says the rebate is up to 100% of the GST, to a maximum of $50,000.
Between $1 million and $1.5 million, the maximum rebate is gradually reduced on a straight line. The CRA’s own example: a home valued at $1.25 million sits halfway up that range, so the rebate is $25,000, which is 50% of the $50,000 maximum. At $1.5 million and above, this particular rebate is not part of the picture.
Where the existing GST/HST new housing rebate also applies to your purchase, the first-time buyers’ rebate works as a top-up on that one.
Who counts as a first-time buyer for this
This is the part worth reading carefully, because “first-time buyer” means something specific here and it is not the same definition used elsewhere. The CRA’s conditions are:
- You are at least 18, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
- You have not lived in a home that you, or your spouse or common-law partner, owned or jointly owned as a primary residence at any time in the calendar year or in the previous four calendar years.
- Neither you nor your spouse or common-law partner has previously received this rebate.
- You are buying the home as your primary place of residence, and you are the first individual to occupy it after construction is finished.
Notice that second condition. It is a four-year look-back, not a lifetime test. That is a different question from the one BC asks for its first time home buyers’ property transfer tax exemption, which requires that you have never owned a registered interest in a property that was your principal residence anywhere in the world. Two programs, two tests, so check each on its own terms rather than assuming they move together.
The dates that set your eligibility
The timing rules are tied to your paperwork with the builder:
- The agreement of purchase and sale with the builder is entered into on or after 20 March 2025 and before 2031. If you are building or substantially renovating yourself, it is the construction start that falls in that window; for co-op shares, it is the agreement with the co-op.
- Construction begins before 2031 and the home is substantially completed before 2036.
- Ownership or possession transfers to you before 2036.
For anyone signing a pre-sale in the Okanagan today, all three are comfortably in reach. Keep the signed agreement and every amendment, because the rebate rests on those dates.
How the money actually reaches you
Two routes, and it is worth asking your builder which one they use before you sign.
The builder can credit the rebate to you at closing, the same way builders handle the existing new housing rebate. That is the simpler path, because it lowers the cash you need on completion day.
Where the builder does not credit it, you apply directly to the CRA through your CRA account or on Form GST190, or Form GST191 for an owner-built home. The CRA notes there is a time limit, usually within two years of taking ownership or finishing construction. That route means planning for the GST at closing and receiving the rebate afterwards, which is a very different cash-flow picture. It is one of the first things I ask about when a client brings me a new-build contract.
What else applies to a new build in BC
A few other rules line up nicely with a new construction purchase:
- The newly built home property transfer tax exemption. BC gives a full exemption at a fair market value of $1,100,000 or less, with a partial exemption phasing out at $1,150,000. This one is not limited to first-time buyers. You do need to move in within 92 days of registration and keep it as your principal residence for the rest of that first year.
- Thirty-year amortizations. Since 15 December 2024, insured mortgages allow 30-year amortizations for all first-time buyers and for all buyers of new builds. On a new construction purchase, that is available to you either way.
- The insured price cap. The same changes raised the price cap for insured mortgages to $1.5 million, effective 15 December 2024, which matters in that upper band where the GST rebate is tapering.
I went through the down payment tiers, the FHSA and the Home Buyers’ Plan in the real numbers for a first-time buyer in Kelowna.
Financing a home that completes later
Pre-sale purchases have a feature resale purchases do not: a long gap between signing and possession. A few things I plan around.
Deposits to the builder are usually paid in stages through construction, and they count toward your down payment at completion. Map those dates alongside your savings so everything lands comfortably.
Lenders confirm income, credit and the source of your down payment close to the completion date, not only at the original approval. Steady employment and tidy documentation through the build period make that final stretch straightforward. Keep your purchase agreement, amendments, deposit receipts and occupancy paperwork together in one place.
Some lenders are far more comfortable with distant completion dates than others, and rate hold arrangements built around a completion date are a real thing. Working with more than 50 lenders means I can match your completion timeline to a lender set up for it, rather than fitting your timeline to one institution’s policy. On a conventional mortgage there is no cost to you for that.
If you are looking at a new build in Kelowna or anywhere in BC and want to know how the GST rebate and the BC exemptions fit your purchase, I am happy to go through it with you before you sign anything. That conversation is worth a great deal more early than it is once the contract is firm.