The Home Buyers' Plan: Using Your RRSP for a First Home
The Home Buyers' Plan lets you borrow from your own retirement savings to buy your first home — up to $60,000, tax-free, with 15 years to pay it back. It is the one way to take money out of an RRSP without paying tax on it, and it can be combined with a First Home Savings Account withdrawal for the same home. The rules are strict, and breaking them turns the withdrawal into taxable income.
In short
Under the Home Buyers' Plan you can withdraw up to $60,000 from your RRSP tax-free to buy or build a qualifying first home, and repay it over 15 years. The money must have been in your RRSP for at least 90 days before you withdraw it. Repayment normally starts in the second year after the year of your first withdrawal — but first withdrawals made between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2028 do not start until the fifth year.
Who qualifies
You must be a first-time home buyer — which means you did not live in a home you owned, or that your current spouse or common-law partner owned, at any time in the current calendar year or the previous four calendar years. You must have a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home, be a resident of Canada from the withdrawal until you buy or build, and intend to live in the home as your principal place of residence within one year of buying or building it. A couple can each withdraw up to $60,000, for $120,000 combined, if both qualify.
The $60,000 limit
The limit was raised from $35,000 to $60,000 in Budget 2024, for withdrawals made on or after 16 April 2024. Your RRSP issuer will not withhold tax on a qualifying withdrawal of $60,000 or less. You can withdraw from more than one RRSP, as long as you are the annuitant of each one. Some RRSPs — such as locked-in or group RRSPs — do not allow Home Buyers' Plan withdrawals at all, so check with your issuer first.
The 90-day rule
The money must have been in your RRSP for at least 90 days before you withdraw it. A contribution made last week cannot be withdrawn under the plan this week. If you withdraw money that has not met the 90-day rule, that part of the withdrawal is not eligible and is taxed as income. Plan the timing: contribute, wait 90 days, then withdraw.
Repaying it
You repay the withdrawal over 15 years. Each year you must repay at least the balance divided by the years remaining — on a $60,000 withdrawal, that is $4,000 a year. Repayments are RRSP contributions designated as Home Buyers' Plan repayments on Schedule 7. They are not tax-deductible and they do not use RRSP room. Repayment normally starts in the second year after the year of your first withdrawal. For first withdrawals made between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2028, repayment is deferred: it starts in the fifth year instead. A first withdrawal in 2026, for example, is first repaid in 2031. The CRA's repayment page is the place to confirm your own start year.
If you fall behind
If you repay less than the minimum in a year, the shortfall is added to your income for that year, on line 12900. You cannot catch it up later — the shortfall is taxed and gone. If you do not buy or build the home, the withdrawal must be cancelled and the money returned to your RRSP, using form RC471. You request the withdrawal itself with form T1036, one form for each eligible withdrawal.
Related guides
Sources: Canada Revenue Agency, Home Buyers' Plan.