There are two registered accounts built for one purpose: getting you into a first home. They can both be used on the same purchase, the Home Buyers’ Plan repayment rules changed again for 2026, and the most expensive mistake is waiting until you are ready to buy before opening the FHSA.
You can use both on the same home
This is the part people get wrong most often. The First Home Savings Account and the Home Buyers’ Plan are not an either-or choice. CRA states plainly that you can withdraw from your RRSP under the Home Buyers’ Plan and make a qualifying withdrawal from your FHSA for the same qualifying home, as long as you meet all of the conditions at the time of each withdrawal.
If two of you are buying together, each of you has your own limits. Two FHSAs and two Home Buyers’ Plan withdrawals are two separate sets of room.
The FHSA in plain terms
Your FHSA participation room in the first year you open an account is $8,000. Contributions are generally deductible against your income, which is the part that makes it feel like an RRSP. Transfers from an RRSP into an FHSA are not deductible, because the deduction was already claimed on the way into the RRSP.
Unused room carries forward, but only so far. A year’s room tops out at $16,000, which is the current year’s $8,000 plus a maximum $8,000 carried forward. CRA’s own example walks through someone whose participation room for the following year came to exactly $16,000 after a year of contributing nothing. The lifetime ceiling is $40,000, and that covers your contributions and any RRSP transfers together.
Room does not build up from the day you turn 18. It starts the year you open the account. That is the whole argument for opening one now, even with a small deposit in it.
To open one, you have to be a first-time home buyer as CRA defines it for this purpose: you did not live in a qualifying home that you owned or jointly owned, as your principal place of residence, at any time in the current calendar year or the previous four calendar years. CRA’s examples are worth reading, because one of them catches people off guard. If you currently live in a home your spouse or common-law partner owns, you are not eligible to open an FHSA.
The account does not stay open forever either. Your maximum participation period ends on December 31 of the year in which the earliest of these happens: the fifteenth anniversary of opening your first FHSA, you turn 71, or the year following your first qualifying withdrawal.
Taking the money out without tax
A qualifying withdrawal comes out tax-free and is never repaid. To be one, CRA requires all of the following: you are a first-time home buyer for withdrawal purposes, meaning you did not live in a home you owned in the current calendar year before the withdrawal, apart from the 30 days immediately before it, or in the previous four calendar years; you have a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home with an acquisition or construction completion date before October 1 of the year following the withdrawal; you did not acquire the home more than 30 days before withdrawing; you are a resident of Canada from the first withdrawal until you acquire the home; and you occupy or intend to occupy it as your principal place of residence.
One detail that surprises people: there is no minimum number of days the money has to sit in the account first. If you are eligible to open an FHSA and you have a written purchase agreement, the contribution can go in and come back out as a qualifying withdrawal.
The Home Buyers’ Plan, and what changed for 2026
The Home Buyers’ Plan withdrawal limit is currently $60,000 per person. It is not a gift from your RRSP. You have up to 15 years to repay it into your RRSP, and any year’s required repayment that you do not make is added to your income for that year.
Here is the change worth knowing about. Temporary repayment relief has been extended to anyone making a first Home Buyers’ Plan withdrawal between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028. For those withdrawals, the 15-year repayment period starts the fifth year following the year of the first withdrawal rather than the second. CRA’s example: a first withdrawal in 2026 means a first repayment year of 2031. That extends the relief introduced in Budget 2024, which covered withdrawals made between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025.
The eligibility conditions look a lot like the FHSA’s. You need to be a first-time home buyer, have a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home, be a resident of Canada through the process, and intend to occupy the home as your principal place of residence within one year after buying or building it. The home also has to be acquired or built before October 1 of the year after the year of your first withdrawal.
What it means for the mortgage itself
Minimum down payments in Canada are 5% of the first $500,000 of the purchase price, 10% of the portion above $500,000 up to $1.5 million, and 20% at $1.5 million or more.
Put Edmonton numbers on that. The average selling price across all property types in August 2026 was $469,602. At that price the minimum down payment is 5%, or $23,480. Two first-time buyers who each opened an FHSA and contributed the full $8,000 would be most of the way there in one year, and past it in two.
Where it gets more interesting is the gap between the minimum and 20%. Under 20% down, your mortgage is insured and priced accordingly. At 20% or more, your file lands in a different pricing category, and the amortization options change with it. How those categories work is set out on the Rates Explained page, and the calculator on the homepage will show you what each down payment does to the payment itself.
A sensible order of operations
- Open an FHSA if you qualify, even with a small deposit, so the room starts accumulating.
- Ask your accountant which account to fund first. The FHSA deduction and an RRSP contribution do different things to your tax return, and that is their call, not mine.
- Get pre-approved before you are shopping seriously, so the down payment target is a real number instead of a guess.
- Watch the October 1 deadline in the year after your first withdrawal. It applies to both plans.
Sources: The $8,000 first year participation room, the deductibility of contributions and the treatment of RRSP transfers are from the Canada Revenue Agency’s First Home Savings Account (FHSA). The carry-forward limit, the $16,000 maximum in a year and the $40,000 lifetime limit are from CRA’s Participating in your FHSAs. The conditions for opening an account, including the example of living in a home owned by a spouse or common-law partner, are from CRA’s Opening your FHSA. The qualifying withdrawal conditions, the 30 day rules and the absence of a minimum holding period are from CRA’s Withdrawals and transfers out of your FHSAs. The maximum participation period is from CRA’s Closing your FHSAs. The $60,000 Home Buyers’ Plan limit, the ability to use both plans for the same home, and the repayment relief for first withdrawals made between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028 are from CRA’s The Home Buyers’ Plan. The participation conditions and the October 1 deadline are from CRA’s How to participate in the Home Buyers’ Plan, and the 15 year repayment period is from CRA’s How to repay the amounts withdrawn from your RRSPs under the Home Buyers’ Plan. Minimum down payment rules are from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s How much you need for a down payment. The August 2026 average selling price of $469,602 is from the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton’s Late summer slow-down continues for Edmonton housing activity. Registered plan rules change and depend on your own circumstances. This article is general information, not tax advice, and not advice on your specific file.