On an $850,000 new build in Ontario, the federal Bill C-4 rebate wipes out $42,500 of GST and the provincial ENHR another $68,000, $110,500 of tax gone, but only if you qualify for both and don't trip the 12-month occupancy rule.
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 | Ontario Enhanced New Housing Rebate (ENHR) | Federal GST New Housing Rebate (Bill C-4) |
|---|---|---|
Tax rebated | The 8% Ontario portion of HST | The 5% federal portion of GST/HST |
Maximum rebate | $80,000 (reached at a $1,000,000 price) | $50,000 (reached at $1,000,000) |
Who qualifies | All buyers of a new primary residence: repeat buyers included | First-time buyers only (no owned home occupied in the current or prior 4 calendar years) |
Price ceiling for the full rebate | $1,500,000, then phases down to the standard $24,000 rebate by $1,850,000 | $1,000,000, then phases to zero at $1,500,000 |
Program window | Contracts signed 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027: temporary | Permanent statutory change under Bill C-4 |
Occupancy requirement | 12 months of continuous primary residence, or the CRA claws it back | Same 12-month rule |
Analyze the advantages and drawbacks of each financial product before making a decision.
Ontario charges 13% HST on new construction, $110,500 on an $850,000 townhouse. That tax, not the mortgage rate, is often the single largest closing-cost line for new-build buyers, and it is exactly what these two programs attack.
Take Aisha and Dev, first-time buyers signing with a builder in Vaughan in August 2026. Bill C-4 rebates the full federal 5%: $42,500. The ENHR rebates the provincial 8%: $68,000. Together: $110,500 — effectively buying at a 13% discount to the sticker.
In practice they will likely never see a cheque. Builders price rebates into their advertised numbers and require buyers to assign the rebate at closing via Form GST190. That works fine — until eligibility fails, which is where the trap in section three lives.
The programs part ways above $1,000,000. The federal rebate peaks at $50,000 there, then shrinks linearly and hits exactly zero at $1,500,000. A first-time buyer at $1,490,000 gets about $1,000; at $1,510,000, nothing. Around that line, negotiating $20,000 off the price can be worth $50,000 in rebate: the strangest bargaining leverage in Canadian real estate.
The ENHR is gentler: capped at $80,000 from $1M, held in full to $1.5M, then tapered, but only down to the standard $24,000 provincial rebate at $1.85M, never to zero.
Read the chart before writing an offer near either threshold. Between $1.4M and $1.55M, the combined rebate swings by more than $50,000 across a price range narrower than most negotiation margins.
Builder contracts advertise prices 'HST included', which really means 'HST included assuming your rebates come through, because you are assigning them to us'. If the CRA later denies your rebate, the standard contract lets the builder demand the difference from you in cash. On an $850,000 purchase, that is a $110,500 problem appearing after closing.
The most common way buyers blow eligibility: leasing the unit inside the first 12 months. Both programs require continuous primary-residence occupancy for a year; rent it out: even to family, even 'temporarily', and the CRA claws back the rebates. Investors have a separate route (the New Residential Rental Property Rebate), but it must be chosen upfront, not retrofitted after an audit letter.
Protect yourself with paper: utility bills in your name at the address, driver's licence update, home insurance as owner-occupier, moving invoices: kept for three years. And if there is any real chance you'll rent the unit out, tell your lawyer before closing so the deal is structured for the NRRPR instead of unravelling later.
Building on your own land? Both rebates still apply, but the paperwork route changes: owner-built homes claim through Form GST191 after completion rather than a builder assignment, with the same price caps and the same occupancy rule. Keep every construction invoice: the rebate is calculated on tax actually paid.
Pre-construction condo buyers sit in a timing trap worth checking twice: for the ENHR it is the date the purchase agreement was signed that must fall inside the 1 April 2026 - 31 March 2027 window. An assignment purchase inherits its own agreement date, and closings years out still qualify if the signing date fits.
Co-signing is where the federal rebate quietly shrinks: if a parent who owns a home goes on title to strengthen the mortgage application, the Bill C-4 rebate is prorated to the first-time buyer's ownership share: a 50/50 title can halve a $42,500 rebate. Where possible, keep the non-first-timer as a guarantor rather than an owner, and price the difference with your lawyer before signing.
These rebates target different halves of Ontario's 13% HST, so a first-time buyer of a sub-$1.5M new build claims both, $110,500 on an $850,000 home. The comparison matters at the edges: repeat buyers get only the ENHR (still up to $80,000), buyers above $1.5M lose the federal rebate entirely but keep provincial relief, and buyers outside Ontario have only Bill C-4. Two deadlines shape strategy: ENHR contracts must be signed by 31 March 2027, which is a genuine reason to accelerate a planned new-build purchase, and the 12-month occupancy rule converts both rebates into a five-figure debt if you lease the unit in year one. Price the rebate as real only if you will actually live there.
Every Ontario new-build buyer: it is the larger rebate and the only one repeat buyers get. Sign before 31 March 2027.
First-time buyers Canada-wide on new builds under $1.5M; in Ontario, always claimed alongside the ENHR.
The rules and figures on this page are researched from official primary sources:
