Federal Government Makes it Easier to Buy a First Home

Logo: Government of Canada (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

Logo: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, QC, April 17, 2019 /CNW/ - Our Government strongly believes that all Canadians should have access to safe and affordable housing. That is why we are focusing on the introduction of an innovative tool under Canada's first ever National Housing Strategy.

Today, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), announced a proposed measure to strengthen the National Housing Strategy by making it more affordable for young Canadians to buy their first home.

The proposed Budget 2019 measure will help families take their first steps toward home ownership through a new First-Time Home Buyer Incentive that would reduce the mortgage payments required for first-time home buyers looking to own a home.

Additionally, Budget 2019 will:

• increase the Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal limit from $25,000 to $35,000, providing first-time home buyers with greater access to their Registered Retirement Savings Plan savings to buy a home
• expand the Rental Construction Financing initiative to increase the construction of rental units in communities across Canada
• invite communities and other groups to propose initiatives that break down barriers limiting new housing through a new Housing Supply Challenge aims to provide new resources to find new solutions to enhance housing supply and provide a platform to share these models with communities across Canada

Quotes

"Through the National Housing Strategy, more middle-class Canadians - and people working hard to join it - will find safe, accessible and affordable homes. Our proposed measures will make it more affordable for young Canadians to buy their first home and will help strengthen the National Housing Strategy, ensuring that it delivers concrete results for the benefit of all Canadians. " – Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

"The many families in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu region, including young families, military families and young professionals, will benefit directly from these enhanced measures, which will make it easier for them to acquire their first home. I am proud to be part of a government that puts Quebec and Canadian families first by giving them the help they need to make a difference every day. " – Jean Rioux, Deputy for Saint-Jean

"Through the design of the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, officials at the Department of Finance and CMHC have worked hard to develop a program that is balanced. One that achieves our objectives of helping first-time buyers without undoing the progress already made through measures that prevent excessive borrowing and limit house price inflation." – Evan Siddall, President and Chief Executive Officer Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Quick Facts

• To help make homeownership more affordable, Budget 2019 introduces the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive.
• The Incentive would allow eligible first-time home buyers who have the minimum down payment for an insured mortgage to apply to finance a portion of their home purchase through a shared equity mortgage with CMHC.
• CMHC would offer qualified first-time home buyers a 10 per cent shared equity mortgage for a newly constructed home or a 5 per cent shared equity mortgage for an existing home.
• This larger shared equity mortgage for newly constructed homes could help encourage the home construction needed to address some of the housing supply shortages in Canada, particularly in our largest cities.
• The Incentive would be available to first-time home buyers with household incomes under $120,000 per year. At the same time, participants' insured mortgage and the Incentive amount cannot be greater than four times the participants' annual household incomes.
• For a family buying a $400,000 home, this program could save them as much as $228 per month or more than $2,700 a year.
• Details of the program are being finalized by CMHC and will be announced later this year.
• The Government of Canada is currently rolling out its National Housing Strategy (NHS)—an ambitious 10-year, $55 billion+ plan that will create 100,000 new housing units and remove 530,000 families from housing need, as well as repair and renew more than 300,000 community housing units and reduce chronic homelessness by 50 percent.
• The NHS is built on strong partnerships between federal, provincial and territorial governments, and on continuous engagement with others, including municipalities, Indigenous governments and organizations, and the social and private sectors, to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Canadians.

Associated Links

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. CMHC's aims is that by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home they can afford, and that meets their needs. For more information, please visit cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

To find out more about the National Housing Strategy, visit www.placetocallhome.ca.

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Media Contacts: Valérie Glazer, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, 819-654-5546, [email protected]; Audrey-Anne Coulombe, Media Relations, CMHC, 613-748-2573, [email protected]

Related Links

www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca