HST and Real Estate

Once again the government is doing a fantastic job of putting up more barriers to growing the economy by implementing HST, as if increased land transfer costs were not enough!

Many people have had questions on how this will impact home purchases. The biggest misconception is that this tax applies to resale homes as well as new builds. This is definitely not the case.

To clarify, no HST will be charged on residential rents, condo fees or the purchase of resale homes.

The HST will be applied on the purchase of new homes.

However, home buyers will be able to claim a rebate of some of the provincial portion of the tax for new homes priced up to $500,000. The rebate for new primary residences under $400,000 will be six percent of the purchase price (or 75 percent of the provincial portion of the tax), with the rebate amount reduced for homes priced between $400,000 and $500,000.

Buyers of new residential rental properties will receive a similar rebate.

The HST will however, apply on real estate commissions.

To see how else the HST will affect your day-to-day expenditures, check out the handy chart below:
















Chart courtesy of Richard Silver, Torontoism

Send your feedback to your local MPP or, for your convenience, we have included Dalton and Dwight's email address for you to share how you feel about HST!

Dalton McGuinty - Premier: dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Dwight Duncan – Ministry of Finance: dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org