As a First Time Home Buyer you have savings and options available to you exclusively. These along with some other savings are listed below. Please feel free to contact me if you are thinking of buying or are already pre-approved and ready to go! We can discuss your situation and I will provide you with my First Time Buyers Success Package. This package outlines the entire First Time Buying process from start to finish. My goal is to outline the process for you and walk you through it from beginning to end, ensuring no surprises along the way!
Canada Revenue Agency's Home Buyers Plan lets qualifying home buyers use up to $25,000 of their Registered Retirement Savings Plan to buy a home. Couples can use up to $50,000. The home must be a principal residence, the home buyers must not have owned a home within the past five years and the loan must be repaid with 15 years. Disabled home buyers upgrading to a more accessible home also qualify as do relatives helping disabled home buyers. Home buyers who have already used the plan and have fully repaid their RRSP may be eligible to use the plan a second time. Talk to your lender for more information.
Mortgage Brokers notes:
The most efficient way to pay off this type of investment vehicle is to pay off the recommended minimum payments and not exceed (balloon) those.
This recommended re-payment plan is to repay at a rate of 1/15th/yr.
Ex: $25,000 ÷ 15yrs = $1,666.66/yr annual payment.
Do to the new FINTRAC regulations the funds used must be in your RRSP account for a minimum of 90 days.
Purchaser must have not owned any interest in a principal residence anywhere in Canada at any time in the past 5 years.
1% on the first $200,000 and 2% on the balance.
This money must be paid out with your own funds or a line of credit. You can not add this cost to your mortgage total.
To qualify for a FULL exemption to the Property Purchase Tax as a First Time Home Buyer, the following criteria must be met:
You have never owned an interest in a principal residence anywhere in the world at any time. **
Purchaser must be a citizen of or a resident of Canada and have resided in B.C for at least one year prior to the purchase.
To obtain a full exemption, the purchase price must not exceed $425,000. There are partial exemptions between $425,000 & $450,000.
Purchaser of the property must reside and utilize the property as their principal residence for at least one year.
For more information on Property Transfer Tax please visit he link provided:
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/individuals/property_taxes/property_transfer_tax/ptt.htm
**B.C lenders reccognise this as meaning (Purchaser must have not owned any interest in a principal residence anywhere in Canada at any time in the past 5 years)
The basic grant can reduce your property tax by as much as $570 on properties assessed up to $1,050,000 & continues on a sliding scale up to $1,164,000, where the grant is eliminated. The tax payable ensures that all homeowners (or eligible occupants, which includes an eligible occupant of an eligible apartment, housing unit, land cooperative or multi dwelling leased parcel) contribute towards the funding of local services such as road maintenance and police protection.
For further information please call the Government (small business & revenue Dep) toll-free direct at 1-888-355-2700.
To be eligible for the grant, you must meet the following criteria:
You are a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant and ordinarily reside in British Columbia
You are the registered owner or eligible occupant of the home. The home must be located within the province.
The home is your primary residence – where you live and conduct your daily activities. The grant does not apply to summer cottages, second homes or rental properties.
Spouses who live together, including those who are married or who live together in a marriage-like relationship, including same-gender partners, can qualify for a grant on only one residence in the province in a calendar year.
Spouses who live apart can each claim a grant on their principal residence if they have a written separation agreement or a court order recognizing the separation.
For more information on the home owners grant please visit the link provided:
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/individuals/Property_Taxes/Home_Owner_Grant/hog.htm
The HST rebate is only available for principal residences.
0% HST on resale (not new/used) homes unless there have been substantial renovations to an old property making it virtually new.
If a property is held under a company name and that company has deferred purchase tax, HST is applicable if you are not buying under a company name yourself. In this circumstance if you were to be the first residential owner, you would be eligible to pay that previously deferred purchase tax. The rebate will still be applicable to you in this circumstance.
HST is 12% on NEW HOMES (being purchased directly from a builder/developer). Purchasers of new homes would be eligible for a rebate of 71.43 per cent of the provincial portion of the HST paid on a new home, up to a maximum of $26,250. Homes above $525,000 would receive a flat rebate of $26,250.
