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Your first home is closer than you think. Start with our first-time home buyer calculator.
See what you can afford, the cash you'll actually need after the rebates, and the surprising stack of help built just for first-time buyers in 2026. Example numbers are loaded so you can start now.
First-time home buyer calculator: what can you afford?
A conservative, stress-tested estimate based on your income and savings. First-time buyers can also use a 30-year amortization to lower the monthly payment.
You could likely shop up to
A conservative ceiling. The right structure and the incentives below can stretch it.
Estimated Mortgage
Estimated Payment
The cash you'll really need
Beyond the down payment, you need cash for closing. The good news: as a first-time buyer, the land transfer tax rebate takes a big bite out of it.
Minimum Down Payment
Land Transfer Tax (After Rebate)
Total Cash to Close
Your first-time buyer stack
2026 is unusually generous. Flip the switches that fit you and watch your total support add up.
Money back, in your pocket
$5,500
Rebates and credits you don't repay. Separate from the tax-free savings room below.
Tax-free down payment room you can tap
$100,000
This is your own money, but saved and withdrawn with major tax advantages. The HBP portion is repaid to your RRSP over 15 years.
Ontario land transfer tax rebate
Applied at closing by your lawyer
First-Time Home Buyers' Tax Credit
Claimed on your tax return, up to $1,500
First-time buyer GST rebate (new build)
Turn on "newly built home" to include
FHSA
Tax-deductible, tax-free for a first-time buyer, never repaid
RRSP Home Buyers' Plan
Tax-free withdrawal, repaid over 15 years
Educational estimate only. This is not an approval, a commitment or a personalised recommendation. Your actual payment, qualification, fees and penalties depend on the lender’s terms and on verified information. Talk to us before you act on these numbers.
Get your first-home game plan
A written plan with your real budget, your cash-to-close, and a step-by-step on capturing every incentive you qualify for, in the right order and at the right time.
No spam, ever. Your numbers stay private and are never sold.
How this tool works
The method behind the first-home numbers
This tool works out what a first purchase would cost you up front and each month, so the deposit conversation and the payment conversation happen together rather than six weeks apart.
The down payment rules it applies
$500,000 to just under $1,500,000: 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of the rest
$1,500,000 or more: minimum 20%, because default insurance is not available at that price
Note the boundary is $1,500,000 or more, not above it. At exactly $1.5 million the 20% minimum applies.
What people forget to budget
Closing costs are the thing that catches first-time buyers, and they are not small. Land transfer tax, legal fees, title insurance, an appraisal, a home inspection and adjustments for prepaid property taxes all land around closing. Ontario has a first-time buyer land transfer tax rebate, and Toronto has its own municipal tax and its own rebate.
What this tool cannot tell you
- Whether you qualify. Debt service ratios are tested at the qualifying rate, not your contract rate, and they include property taxes, heat, condo fees and your other debts.
- Whether a preapproval will hold. A preapproval is a conditional estimate. Final approval depends on the property, the lender and insurer review, complete documents and no material change to your finances.
- Which programs you can stack. The FHSA, the Home Buyers’ Plan and 30-year insured amortization each have their own eligibility rules, and 30-year amortization in particular is not available to every insured buyer.
- Your insurance premium. Default insurance premiums vary with your loan-to-value and are added to the mortgage.
Educational estimate only, not an approval or a commitment. Program rules change; confirm current limits with the Canada Revenue Agency and your lender before planning around them. Reviewed 30 August 2026 by Fusion Mortgage Group, a team of licensed mortgage brokers with BRX Mortgage Inc., Mortgage Brokerage #13463.
Next step
You have the numbers. Now let us build the plan.
The launchpad gets you close. A short call turns it into a real budget, a real down payment target and a pre-approval you can shop with.
Not sure where to start? See how we help first time buyers