The Biggest New Home Tax Break in a Generation Just Dropped. Here’s What You Need to Know.
This is not old news, recycled housing policy, or a minor tweak to the tax code. What Premier Doug Ford announced this morning, March 25, 2026, is one of the most significant housing affordability measures Ontario has ever introduced. If you are thinking about buying a new home in Markham, Ontario, this changes your math dramatically. If you are selling a home or operating as a builder, this changes your market. And if you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right moment to get into Markham’s new construction market, that moment just arrived.
Michael John Lau and Neeraj Moolchandani are REALTORS®️ and luxury real estate specialists at Kaizen Real Estate in Markham, Ontario. This is the complete breakdown of Ontario’s HST rebate expansion, what it covers, who qualifies, what it means for new home buyers in Markham specifically, and why you need to act decisively during the window that is now open.
What Was Just Announced
Premier Doug Ford says the province and the federal government plan to temporarily expand the HST rebate for new homes in Ontario, allowing all buyers a rebate of up to $130,000.
The full 13 per cent HST will be removed for new homes valued up to $1 million from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027. Ford said the full HST will be covered, including the federal five per cent portion, thanks to a partnership with the federal government, which has agreed to split costs with Ontario until legislation passes.
To put that in dollar terms that matter to a Markham buyer: on a $1,000,000 new home, 13% HST equals $130,000. That is $130,000 you are no longer paying. On a new $800,000 townhome in Cornell or Greensborough, the savings are $104,000. On a $900,000 condo in Downtown Markham, the savings are $117,000.
This is not a small program. Government officials estimate the program will cost the province $1.4 billion and could stimulate an additional 8,000 housing starts, support up to 21,000 jobs, and boost real GDP growth by $2.7 billion.
The Full Timeline of How This Policy Developed
To fully understand today’s announcement, it helps to understand the policy progression that brought us here, because today’s news is actually the third and most expansive stage of an evolving federal-provincial strategy.
Stage One: The Federal GST Rebate for First-Time Buyers (May 27, 2025)
On May 27, 2025, the federal government tabled a Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce a bill that would implement the First-Time Home Buyers’ GST Rebate. The rebate eliminates the GST, the federal component of the HST, on newly constructed homes valued up to $1 million for eligible first-time home buyers, with the rebate gradually phased out for homes valued between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Federal savings alone: up to $50,000 for a first-time buyer on a $1,000,000 new home.
Stage Two: Ontario Mirrors the Federal Rebate for First-Time Buyers (October-November 2025)
Based on what the federal government proposed, Ontario took steps to temporarily remove the full 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST for first-time home buyers on qualifying new homes. Ontario’s new rebate would remove the provincial portion of the HST for first-time home buyers on new homes valued up to $1 million, with the amount of relief reduced for higher-valued new homes. The proposed new federal and provincial rebates combined would remove the full 13 per cent HST for first-time home buyers on qualifying new homes in Ontario.
Combined savings for first-time buyers at this stage: up to $130,000 ($50,000 federal + $80,000 provincial) on a $1,000,000 new home.
Stage Three: Today’s Announcement — Extended to ALL Buyers (March 25, 2026)
Today’s announcement is the critical expansion that changes everything. The rebate, previously available only to first-time buyers, is now being extended to all buyers of new homes in Ontario for a one-year window. You do not need to be a first-time buyer. You do not need to be purchasing as your first property. The full 13% HST rebate of up to $130,000 is now available to everyone purchasing a qualifying new home in Ontario.
Who Qualifies — The Complete Eligibility Breakdown
The Window
The proposed new rules would be in effect from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027. The purchase agreement with the builder must be signed between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027.
This is a hard deadline on both ends. Sign your purchase agreement with a builder on April 1, 2026 or later, you are in. Sign on April 1, 2027 or later, you have missed it. The one-year clock is running.
Construction Timelines
Homes bought as a primary residence must have construction begin on or before December 31, 2028 and be substantially completed on or before December 31, 2031. A purchase is also eligible if construction began before March 31, 2026, the purchase agreement was signed between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027, and construction is substantially completed on or before December 31, 2029.
Importantly, this means buyers purchasing pre-construction homes that have already broken ground are also potentially eligible, a significant expansion from earlier versions of the program.
Intended Use
The home must be used as a primary residence or as a residential rental property. Investment properties intended for short-term rental are not eligible. This covers both owner-occupiers and landlords building long-term rental housing, a smart policy design that addresses both homeownership and rental supply simultaneously.
Price Tiers and Savings
New homes in Ontario worth up to $1.5 million would remain eligible for the maximum $130,000 rebate. Reduced rebates would be available for homes worth as much as $1.85 million. New homes worth more than that, under existing rules, would still qualify for a $24,000 rebate.
Here is the savings breakdown by price point:
A new home at $800,000 — full $104,000 HST rebate.
A new home at $1,000,000 — full $130,000 HST rebate.
A new home at $1,200,000 — maximum $130,000 rebate.
A new home at $1,600,000 — reduced rebate on a sliding scale.
A new home above $1,850,000 — existing $24,000 rebate applies.
For Markham specifically, where new detached homes frequently price between $1,200,000 and $1,800,000 and new condo and townhome projects in Downtown Markham, Cornell, Greensborough, and Box Grove are actively selling in the $650,000 to $1,100,000 range, a significant portion of the new construction inventory in this city falls squarely within the maximum rebate tier.
What This Means Specifically for Markham New Construction Buyers
Markham is one of the GTA’s most active new construction markets. Several major developments are actively selling right now or will begin sales within the April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027 window. Here is how today’s announcement maps onto Markham’s specific new home landscape:
Downtown Markham — Gallery Towers, UnionCity, Pangea Condos
Downtown Markham’s new condo towers are priced primarily in the $586,900 to $1,225,800 range. Gallery Towers at 190 Enterprise Boulevard is actively selling from the high $600,000s. UnionCity is pricing from $586,900 to $1,159,900. Pangea Condos by Times Group is pricing from $637,000 to $1,225,800.
For a buyer signing a purchase agreement on a $900,000 Downtown Markham condo unit between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027, the HST savings under today’s announcement are $117,000. That is not a rounding error — that is a sum of money that changes what a buyer can afford, how much they need to finance, and what their long-term carrying cost looks like.
Cornell Rouge and Union Glen — New Single-Family Homes
New single-family home construction on hold for two to four years has now begun pre-sales, with building activity expected to pick up through 2026, with completions by late Q3 and early Q4 in Markham communities including Union Glen and Cornell Rouge.
These are exactly the types of projects that today’s announcement is designed to accelerate — and the buyers purchasing in those communities will receive the full HST rebate on eligible purchase agreements signed within the window.
Markham Village — 46 on Main
The intimate, 61-unit boutique condo project at 46 Main Street North by Eringate Homes and Pearl Valley Homes, priced from $452,900, falls well within the full rebate tier. On a $452,900 purchase, the full 13% HST equals approximately $58,877, savings that represent an extraordinary proportion of the purchase price.
New Construction Townhomes Across Markham Communities
Grand Cornell Brownstones (Westmeath Lane), new freehold townhome projects in Wismer Commons, Berczy Village, and Greensborough all price in ranges that make them eligible for the maximum rebate tier. For move-up buyers, investors building rental portfolios, and first-time buyers entering the Markham market through new construction, today’s announcement materially improves the financial case for every one of these projects.
Why This Matters Beyond the Savings — The Bigger Picture
The Housing Starts Problem
Ontario’s new housing construction has been in genuine difficulty. In 2025, the province recorded just over 67,000 new starts, far below the levels needed to build anything close to 1.5 million homes over a decade.
The economics of new construction in the GTA, rising land costs, construction costs, financing costs, and development charges — have made many projects economically unviable to launch. Builders have been cancelling projects, pausing pre-sales, and waiting for market conditions to improve.
Today’s announcement is specifically designed to change those economics. By removing 13% from the cost of a new home for the buyer, the province dramatically increases the pool of qualified, motivated buyers for new construction projects. When buyer demand for new construction increases, builders can price and sell projects that previously could not pencil out financially. More projects that pencil out means more shovels in the ground, more housing units eventually delivered, and, over time, more supply to address Ontario’s fundamental housing shortage.
The Timing Is Deliberate
This announcement comes the day before Ontario’s provincial budget. It is a signal of the government’s priority direction ahead of a budget that will address economic uncertainty, tariff impacts, and housing supply in a single integrated policy framework. The fact that the Ford government secured federal cost-sharing on this program — with the federal government agreeing to split costs with Ontario, means this is a genuine federal-provincial partnership, not a unilateral provincial measure.
The One-Year Window Is Not an Accident
The one-year window from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027 is deliberately designed to create urgency, not artificial scarcity, but genuine motivation for buyers who have been hesitating. Ford made this point directly: if he were a potential homebuyer, he would buy a new home and “do it right away,” saying “Please get everything together, you have one year… talk to your bankers and start buying the homes.”
That is not a sales pitch, it is an accurate description of the incentive structure. Buyers who act within the window capture up to $130,000 in savings. Buyers who wait until April 2, 2027 do not.
The Existing First-Time Buyer Rebate — Still Fully Available
Today’s announcement is additive it does not replace the existing programs. For first-time buyers specifically, the previous federal-provincial rebate structure remains in place and continues to provide the same up to $130,000 in combined savings for qualifying purchase agreements.
Ontario’s existing HST New Housing Rebate provides relief of up to $24,000 and would continue to be available for all other eligible purchasers, including purchasers who are not first-time home buyers and purchasers of higher-valued properties that do not qualify for the new rebate.
The practical takeaway: the existing program stacks. First-time buyers who previously benefited from the federal-provincial first-time buyer rebate are now joined by all other buyers of new homes in Ontario, creating a unified, broadly accessible HST relief structure for new home purchases made during the April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027 window.
What You Need to Do Right Now — A Buyer’s Action Plan
If you are seriously considering buying a new home in Markham, Ontario, here is your action plan for the next 30 to 60 days.
Step 1: Get your financing in order immediately. Call your bank or mortgage broker this week. Understand your pre-approved purchase price, your down payment position, and your carrying cost at today’s interest rates. The rebate does not reduce the purchase price upfront. You pay the full HST-inclusive price at closing and receive the rebate afterward through the CRA. This means you still need to fund the full purchase, with the rebate arriving after closing. Discuss the timing of the rebate with your mortgage broker to ensure your financing structure accounts for this.
Step 2: Identify your target projects. Work with a Markham new construction specialist to identify which active projects in your target communities and price range have inventory available for purchase agreement signing between April 1 and March 31, 2027. Not all projects will have available inventory throughout this window. Some will sell out quickly once buyer awareness of the rebate fully circulates through the market.
Step 3: Never visit a new construction sales office without your own agent. This is the single most important piece of guidance for any Markham new construction buyer. The builder’s sales representatives work for the builder exclusively. They are not obligated to disclose issues, limitations, or terms that are unfavourable to you. Having Michael John Lau and Neeraj Moolchandani represent you as your buyer’s agent at no cost to you. Builder commissions cover buyer representation in virtually all Markham new construction transactions. This ensures you have a professional who is working for your interests, not the builder’s.
Step 4: Understand the builder contract before you sign. New construction purchase agreements are lengthy, builder-favoured documents that include clauses around occupancy fees, closing cost caps, delay provisions, assignment rights, and upgrade pricing that can materially affect the total cost of your purchase. Have your real estate lawyer review the agreement before you sign, not after.
Step 5: Confirm your rebate eligibility with a qualified accountant or tax advisor. While the eligibility criteria outlined in today’s announcement are clear, the specifics of your individual situation, particularly if you own other properties, are purchasing as an investment or rental, or have any complexity in your ownership history, should be reviewed with a qualified professional before you commit to a purchase.
A Word to Markham Sellers of Existing Homes
Today’s announcement primarily affects new construction buyers, but it has meaningful ripple effects for sellers of resale homes in Markham as well.
When new construction becomes dramatically more affordable, particularly for first-time buyers and move-up buyers who might otherwise have considered a resale home, some portion of that demand shifts toward new construction. This is a genuine consideration for sellers of existing homes in communities where new construction is active and competitive with resale pricing.
The strategic response for resale sellers is not panic. It is precision. A well-priced, well-presented, well-marketed resale home in Markham still offers things that new construction cannot. Immediate possession, established neighbourhoods with mature trees and proven community infrastructure, no occupancy fee period, and certainty about what you are getting. The resale value proposition remains strong. But sellers who price their homes without accounting for the new competitive landscape, where a buyer can get a new home with a $130,000 HST rebate applied, will struggle.
If you are planning to list a resale home in Markham in the next 12 months, a conversation with Michael John Lau and Neeraj Moolchandani about how to position your property competitively in this changed environment is a conversation worth having now, not later.