The FHSA hands a 30%-bracket saver $2,400 back per year and never asks for the money again. The RRSP Home Buyers' Plan lends you up to $60,000 of your own retirement: then bills you for 15 years. Use both, but in the right order.
Adjust the variables below to simulate outcomes, compare rates, and see real-time projections.
A direct comparison of features, rules, limits, and eligibility requirements.
| Feature / Detail | FHSA | RRSP (Home Buyers' Plan) |
|---|---|---|
Withdrawal for a first home | Tax-free and never repaid | Tax-free but must be repaid to your RRSP over 15 years |
How much you can pull | $40,000 of contributions ($8,000/yr) plus all growth | Up to $60,000 per person (limit raised in Budget 2024) |
Tax deduction on the way in | Yes: every contribution reduces taxable income | Yes: standard RRSP deduction |
If you never buy | Roll the whole balance into your RRSP tax-free, without using RRSP room | Nothing happens; the money was already in your RRSP |
Deadlines | Use within 15 years of opening or by age 71 | Repay 1/15th per year, starting the 5th year after withdrawal (Budget 2024 grace) |
Contribution room | Separate from RRSP room; only $8,000 of carry-forward allowed | 18% of prior-year earned income, up to $33,810 for 2026 |
Analyze the advantages and drawbacks of each financial product before making a decision.
Mia earns $90,000 in Ontario: a combined marginal rate near 30%. Each January she puts $8,000 into her FHSA and invests it in a broad index ETF. Every spring, the CRA sends back about $2,400, because the contribution deducts straight off her taxable income.
After five years she has contributed the full $40,000. At 7% average growth the account holds roughly $46,000, and she has collected about $12,000 in refunds along the way. Her effective out-of-pocket cost for $46,000 of down payment: around $28,000.
When she buys, the entire balance, contributions and growth, comes out tax-free with no repayment schedule. Compare that with a plain savings account, where the same $40,000 of deposits earns taxable interest and triggers no refunds at all.
The Home Buyers' Plan looks similar at withdrawal time: up to $60,000 out of your RRSP, tax-free, for the same first home. The difference starts afterward. Beginning in the fifth year after withdrawal, the CRA expects 1/15th back into your RRSP every year: $4,000 annually on a full $60,000, until roughly 2046 for a 2026 purchase.
Those repayments are tax-dead. A normal $4,000 RRSP contribution earns a refund; an HBP repayment earns nothing, because the deduction was claimed when the money first went in years ago. And skipping a year is expensive: the missed $4,000 is added to your taxable income: a $1,200 tax hit at a 30% rate, and that RRSP room is gone for good.
There is also the quiet cost nobody invoices: $60,000 missing from your retirement portfolio during what are often your best compounding decades. The HBP is genuinely useful, but it is a bridge loan from 65-year-old you, and the interest is paid in lost growth.
Nothing stops you using both programs on the same purchase, and for expensive markets that is exactly the play. Each partner: up to $40,000 FHSA (plus growth) and up to $60,000 HBP. A couple who planned ahead can put over $200,000 of registered money on the table: every dollar tax-free at withdrawal.
The order of operations matters more than the total. First: both partners open FHSAs now, even with small deposits: the $8,000 annual room only starts accruing once the account exists. Second: max FHSA room each year before making new RRSP contributions earmarked for the house. Third: only lean on the HBP for the shortfall, and prefer withdrawing from RRSP money that has been there for years rather than making fresh RRSP deposits to withdraw (deposits need 90 days inside the RRSP to qualify anyway).
One more eligibility note that surprises people: 'first-time buyer' resets. If neither you nor your spouse owned and occupied a home in the current year or the four preceding calendar years, you qualify again: for both programs.
The FHSA wins the first $8,000 of every year on structure alone: same deduction as the RRSP, but the withdrawal is a clean exit rather than a 15-year repayment schedule. A couple who both max their FHSAs from 2026 can put roughly $92,000 of tax-free, never-repaid money toward a home in five years: after collecting around $24,000 in combined refunds along the way. Reach for the HBP only after FHSA room is exhausted, or when a large RRSP balance already exists from employer plans; it works, but you will be repaying yourself until the 2040s. And if home ownership never happens, the FHSA loses nothing: it converts into bonus RRSP room, which makes opening one this year close to a free option.
Every eligible first-time buyer, starting with this year's $8,000, and even renters unsure they'll ever buy, thanks to the RRSP rollover fallback.
Buyers in expensive markets needing more than the FHSA can hold, and savers with large employer-built RRSP balances ready to deploy.
The rules and figures on this page are researched from official primary sources:
