New Build and First Home Tax Questions in Riverside South

If you are buying new in Riverside South, three separate tax reliefs are in play at the same time and each one is decided before you get the keys: the HST new housing rebate, which depends on your moving in rather than renting out; the registered accounts that fund the down payment, which depend on when you opened them; and the Ontario land transfer tax refund, which depends on a definition of “first-time buyer” that is stricter than the federal one. None of the three is claimed at tax time. All three are decided at or before closing.

Riverside South is one of the few parts of Ottawa where most of the housing is newer than the buyers moving into it. Whole streets off Earl Armstrong and around the new Limebank station arrived in the last handful of years, and the phased subdivisions off Spratt Road are still filling in. That means a large share of the people signing here are doing two things at once for the first time: buying from a builder, and buying at all. Each of those carries its own tax file, and both have timing rules that quietly expire if nobody is watching.

The HST new housing rebate is baked into the purchase, until it is not

When you buy a newly built home in Riverside South, the price carries HST, and a federal and Ontario new housing rebate is designed to give part of it back. On a typical builder purchase the rebate is assigned to the builder, who credits it against the price so you never see the cash. The number on your agreement already assumes it.

The trap is the occupancy condition. That builder-credited rebate is only valid if you, or a close relation, move in as your primary place of residence. If your plans change and the home becomes a rental instead, the rebate you were credited has to be repaid, and the builder assignment does not cover a rental. There is a separate new residential rental property rebate you may claim yourself, but it is a different application with its own filing deadline, and it is not automatic. An investor who assumed the credit on the agreement carried over to a rental can face a large assessment for HST that was, on paper, never charged. Deciding whether the home is your residence or an investment is a tax decision at signing, not a lifestyle decision after the keys. If the use of the unit changes later, the GST/HST change in use rules decide what happens next, and they are not forgiving of a decision made casually.

The first-time buyers’ rebate on top, if the dates line up

Since 2025 there is a second layer for a new build specifically. The first-time home buyers’ GST/HST rebate rebates 100 percent of the GST, or the federal part of the HST, on a new home valued up to $1 million, and a reduced amount on a home valued between $1 million and $1.5 million. Ontario has matched it with a provincial rebate of up to $80,000 of the provincial part of the HST, using the same eligibility conditions. Where both apply, the first-time rebate sits on top of the ordinary new housing rebate rather than replacing it.

The conditions are dates, not intentions. The agreement of purchase and sale with the builder has to have been entered into on or after 20 March 2025 and before 2031, construction has to begin before 2031 and be substantially completed before 2036, and ownership has to transfer to you before 2036. For the Riverside South phases now being released those dates are comfortable. For an agreement signed in an earlier phase, they are not, and no amount of good faith moves the date on the paperwork. Check the agreement date before you assume the rebate is available.

Three different definitions of “first-time buyer”

This is where most Riverside South buyers get caught, because the phrase means three different things in the three places it appears. A couple can qualify for the federal rebate and be disqualified from the Ontario refund on the same transaction.

The Ontario column is the strict one. The provincial refund turns on genuinely never having owned a home anywhere in the world, not merely never having owned one in Ontario, and a spouse who owned previously while you were spouses removes the refund for both of you. A four-year gap since the last sale rescues the federal rebate and does nothing at all for the provincial one. The full mechanics are in the Ontario land transfer tax guide, and the Ottawa first-time buyer benefits overview sets them beside the federal reliefs.

Two savings accounts stack for a first purchase

If Riverside South is your first home, two registered accounts can fund the down payment, and they work best together rather than as alternatives.

The First Home Savings Account gives a deduction going in, like an RRSP, and comes out tax free for a qualifying home purchase, like a TFSA. The CRA sets your FHSA participation room at $8,000 in the first year you open the account, with unused room carrying forward and a lifetime ceiling above it. The room only starts accumulating once the account exists, so opening it early, even with a token deposit, begins the clock. A buyer who opens the FHSA in the same month they sign an agreement has one year of room, not four.

The Home Buyers’ Plan is the older route. The 2026 maximum withdrawal is $60,000 per person, repayable to your RRSP over 15 years, and the home has to be acquired before 1 October of the year after the year of the first withdrawal. That last condition matters in a phased subdivision, because a closing date that slips past the deadline turns an eligible withdrawal into ordinary taxable income. You can use both accounts for the same purchase, but the FHSA withdrawal is never repaid while the HBP withdrawal must be, and missing an HBP repayment quietly adds that year’s shortfall to your income. Knowing which dollars came from which account is what keeps a later return clean.

Closing adjustments and the assignment question

A new build in Riverside South also brings closing adjustments that a resale never has. Builders commonly add development and levy charges, meter and utility hookups, and Tarion enrolment to the final statement, and some of these carry HST while others do not. The statement of adjustments is also the document the Ministry of Finance asks for when a land transfer tax refund is reviewed, along with the registered transfer and proof that you actually moved in, so it is worth keeping rather than filing away unread. The provincial refund has to be claimed within 18 months of registration, and occupancy as your principal residence has to happen within nine months of the transfer.

If you ever assign the agreement before closing, which happened often as the earlier phases appreciated, the assignment itself can be a taxable supply for HST, and the CRA sets out how that works in GI-120 . The profit may also be business income rather than a capital gain depending on your intent at the time you signed, which is the same analysis that governs flipping property. Riverside South’s rapid buildout put a lot of assignments in play, and an assignor who reported the spread as a capital gain without considering intent has taken a position that has to be defensible on the facts.

What to line up before you sign

The pattern in Riverside South is that the tax decisions cluster at the front of the deal, not at tax time. Before signing, confirm the home will be your residence so the credited HST rebate holds, check the agreement date against the first-time rebate window, open an FHSA early enough that the room exists when you need it, and check the provincial land transfer refund against both partners’ full history rather than the last four years. Keep the agreement, the statement of adjustments and the occupancy evidence together from day one, because every one of these claims is eventually proved with paper.

If you are buying new in Riverside South and want the HST rebates, the registered accounts and the land transfer refund handled as one plan rather than three afterthoughts, send me the agreement and the closing date and I will tell you which of the four reliefs you actually qualify for and what has to happen before firm.