What will you actually pay?

Start from the builder’s “GST included” price: it already has the 5% GST in it, less the New Housing Rebate the builder keeps. If you’re not a first-time buyer, that price is what you pay. If you are, the rest of the GST comes back to you, so you effectively pay the home’s price before GST. At $470,000 “GST included”: the home is $447,754 before GST, the GST $22,388, the builder keeps a $142 New Housing Rebate, and a first-time buyer gets $22,246 back — paying $447,754.

Two parts that add up. The New Housing Rebate is 36% of the GST, up to $6,300, on a home priced at $350,000 or less before GST, shrinking to nothing at $450,000 — the builder usually keeps it. A first-time home buyer also gets the rest of the GST back: all of it on a home up to $1,000,000 (at most $50,000 in all), less between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 — $25,000 at $1,250,000, the Canada Revenue Agency’s own example — and nothing from $1,500,000.

They add up, as two parts. The New Housing Rebate goes to the builder — signed over at closing and already taken off a “GST included” price — and the first-time buyers’ rebate gives you the rest of the GST on top (the Canada Revenue Agency calls it a top-up). On a $400,000 home: the GST is $20,000 — the builder keeps $3,150 and $16,850 comes back to you, so no GST is left.

The New Housing Rebate is signed over to the builder on Form GST190 at closing. The builder may take off your first-time rebate the same way once it confirms you qualify. If it takes off only the New Housing Rebate, you apply to the Canada Revenue Agency yourself — in My Account or on Form GST190 by mail — within two years of taking ownership, and it subtracts the New Housing Rebate the builder kept, so you receive the rest. If the builder takes off neither — a price with the full 5% GST — you pay that whole price at closing and apply for what you qualify for yourself, on Form GST190, within two years of taking ownership.

Only if the builder takes it off the price at closing: then you pay the lower price at closing, and your mortgage is worked out on it. If the builder takes off only the New Housing Rebate, you pay the price on the builder’s sheet at closing, your mortgage is worked out on that, and the first-time rebate comes back to you from the Canada Revenue Agency after you apply (within two years of taking ownership). The rebate is the same amount either way; what changes is when it arrives and how much you borrow at closing. This calculator asks which applies and works out the monthly payment on the price you pay at closing — if you’re not sure yet, on the price on the builder’s sheet. From a price with the full 5% GST and no rebate taken off, you pay — and borrow on — that whole price at closing, and the rebates come back after you apply.

Someone 18 or older, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, who — with their spouse or common-law partner — has not lived in a home either of them owned as their main home in the calendar year in which they take ownership of the new home (the possession or closing date) or in the four calendar years before it, anywhere in the world, and who has never had this rebate. The years are counted from the year ownership transfers, not from today: a possession in 2027 looks back over 2023 to 2027. The home must be your main home and you must be the first to live in it.

The agreement to buy must be signed on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031; construction must begin before 2031 and the home be finished — and ownership transferred — before 2036. An agreement signed before March 20, 2025 does not qualify, even if it is later changed or assigned. The rebate became law when Bill C-4 received Royal Assent on March 12, 2026.

The 5% GST is in the price, and on a home under $450,000 before GST the New Housing Rebate has already been taken off — you sign it over to the builder at closing. From $450,000 up there is no New Housing Rebate, so the price is simply the home plus 5%. A first-time buyer’s rebate is not in the advertised price: it comes back on top.

No. Alberta has no provincial sales tax, so the only sales tax on a new home is the 5% GST — that is why this calculator has no provincial sales tax box.

Generally not: a home sold by someone who lived in it has no GST, so there is nothing to rebate. GST applies to new and substantially renovated homes — a renovation that removed or replaced 90% or more of the inside.

You can still claim, on Form GST191 instead: it starts from the GST you paid on the land and the construction and the home’s value when it is finished (under $450,000 for the New Housing Rebate; up to $1,500,000 for a first-time buyer, with construction begun on or after March 20, 2025 and before 2031, and finished before 2036). This calculator works out a home bought from a builder with its land.