To help make home ownership and renting more affordable for Millennials and Generation Zs, the federal Budget 2024: Fairness for every generation, delivered April 16, 2024, includes $8.52¹ billion in new and enhanced housing initiatives. 

Some of these initiatives were already announced in Canada's Housing Plan, which aims to deliver 3.87 million homes by 2031. This includes a minimum of two million new homes.

Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP): effective April 16, homebuyers can withdraw up to $60,000 from their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)  for a downpayment, up from the previous $35,000. This existing federal program lets Canadians withdraw, tax-free, from their RRSP to buy or build a qualifying home. Funds must be repaid within 15 years. Homebuyers now have five years before they must start repaying, up from the previous two years, an extension that applies to withdrawals between 2022 and 2025.  

The HPB works with the government’s Tax-Free First Home Savings Account which lets Canadians contribute up to $8,000 per year (lifetime limit of $40,000), towards their first downpayment.

Affordable housing fund: $1 billion over three years for the creation of new market and below-market rental housing and the repair and renewal of existing housing.  

Apartment construction loan program: $15 billion in new loan funding to build more rental apartments, faster, by providing low-cost financing to homebuilders.  

Canada infrastructure fund: new funding of $6 billion over 10 years to accelerate the construction and upgrading of housing infrastructure such as water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure. 

Housing accelerator fund: an additional $400 million to help municipalities cut red tape, fast-track home construction, and invest in affordable housing. The $4.4 billion fund, announced in 2023, has helped 179 Canadian municipalities fast-track more than 750,000 homes. The $400 million top-up will fast-track 12,000 new homes. 

Modular homes: $50 million over two years, beginning in 2024-25, on a cash basis, through Canada’s Regional Development Agencies, to support local innovative housing solutions across the country, such as designing and upscaling of modular homes. 

Secondary suite loan program: homeowners can access up to $40,000 in low-interest loans to add secondary suites to their homes for a new tenant or family members. 

Canada rental protection fund: a new $1.5 billion fund, to be administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, to protect the stock of affordable housing in Canada. Will provide $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions to support affordable housing providers, including co-ops, to acquire units and preserve rents at a stable level for decades to come. 

Renters’ Bill of Rights: newly developed and implemented in partnership with provinces and territories. Requires landlords to disclose rental rate history so renters can bargain in a more informed way. Will also crack down on renovictions, create a nationwide standard lease agreement, and give renters more agency. 

Renters getting credit for on-time rent payments: government will amend the Canadian Mortgage Charter and call on landlords, banks, credit bureaus, and fintech companies to make sure that rental history is taken into account in renters’ credit scores. 

Tenant protection fund: a new $15 million fund for legal aid and tenants’ rights advocacy organizations to better protect tenants against unfairly rising rent payments, renovictions, or bad landlords. 

Rapid housing initiative: $1.5 billion fund to fast-tracking the construction of new affordable homes for people experiencing homelessness or in severe housing need. Also supports buying existing buildings and converting to permanent affordable housing units. 

Building homes on public land: vacant surplus, underused, and vacant public lands, such as empty office towers or low-rise buildings, could be redeveloped for housing at a reduced cost. The government is conducting a review of its entire federal lands portfolio to identify more potential land for housing. This includes building homes on Canada Post properties and looking at redeveloping properties and buildings on National Defence lands. 

Confronting the financialization of housing: the government intends to restrict the purchase and acquisition of existing single-family homes by large, corporate investors. The government will consult in the coming months and provide further details in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement. 

Greener affordable housing: $458 million for the new stream of the Canada Greener Homes Loan program to provide low-interest loans and grants for energy efficient retrofits of affordable housing, which reduces operational costs for non-profit housing providers. 

Oil to heat pump affordability program: over $750 million for the, which has to date provided support for over 1,500 low- to median-income households to help them transition from expensive heating oil to more energy efficient, cost-saving electric heat pumps. 

Capital gains tax: new revenue will come from an increase in the capital gains tax, projected at $19.3 billion over five years. The tax will affect 0.13 per cent of Canadians with an average income of $1.4 million. (See Table 8.1). A total of 99.87 per cent of Canadians or 29.5 million will not pay the tax, and three million are expected to earn capital gains below the $250,000 annual threshold. The tax rate increases to 66 per cent from 50 per cent, and will also apply to capital gains of corporations and trusts. The tax will apply to capital gains realized on or after June 25, 2024.  

Taxing vacant land to incentivize construction: the government will consider introducing a new tax on residentially-zoned vacant land. The government will launch consultations later this year. 

The budget includes $11.5 billion in new spending this year, $53 billion in new spending over five years, and forecasts a deficit of: 

• $40 billion for 2023-24;  
• $39.8 billion for 2024-25; and  
• $38.9 billion for 2025-26.  

• Budget 2024 (opens 430-page pdf) 
• Budget 2024 Table of contents (links to sections) 
• Budget highlights 
• Putting homeownership back within reach and supporting Canadian homeowners. (Home Buyers’ Plan; 30-year mortgages; Canadian mortgage charter).  
• Growing communities and building more homes faster. (Housing accelerator fund top up; Canada housing infrastructure fund) 
• Fairness for every generation. (Tenant protection fund; renters’ bill of rights, credit for renters paying rent on time). 
• Government making it easier for homeowners to add additional suites to their homes. 
• Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister on putting homeownership back within reach and supporting Canadian homeowners. (Speech, April 11, 2024)  
• The Home Buyers’ Plan 
• Guideline on existing consumer mortgage loans in exceptional circumstances 

We are continuing to analyze the implications of the budget measures and will report more.  

If you have questions about Budget 2024, contact Harriet Permut, director of government relations at hpermut@gvrealtors.ca.

1. The $8.52 billion for more affordable housing is below and can be found in Budget 2024 on page 99 (document page number 85).