What Changed / 2026 / Buying a Home

Buying a Home: What Changed in 2026

Transfer taxes, first-time buyer credits, and municipal home-buying programs.

3 verified buying a home changes logged in 2026, each checked against its official source. See every topic in the 2026 year in review or everything in date order.

• Verified 2026-08-02 · Quebec · Buying a home

  Montréal's Home Purchase Assistance Program has ended and stopped accepting new applications on July 7, 2026. Our buy-a-home page still described a municipal rebate of up to $5,000 that a first-time buyer can no longer apply for. In its place, Quebec's refundable tax credit for access to property reimburses the droit de mutation up to $5,875 for a first property. That credit is the same one already verified and published on our home-sale side in July; the buy-side wording now matches it.

  Montreal rebate of up to $5,000 for first-time buyers → Program ended July 7, 2026; Quebec refundable credit up to $5,875 applies instead

  Source: Ville de Montréal (program status) and Finances Québec

  Updated: Buy a home: Quebec, Private home sale: Quebec

• Verified 2026-08-02 · Quebec · Buying a home

  Quebec's Welcome Tax base tranches are indexed every year and we were showing the 2024 thresholds. For 2026 the provincial base is 0.5% up to $62,900, 1% from $62,900 to $315,000, and 1.5% from $315,000 to $552,300. We also corrected a framing error that mattered more than the indexation: rates above $552,300 are not provincial. A municipality may set its own higher rates by by-law above that point, and Montréal does. Our copy had been presenting the two as one schedule.

  2024 base tranches, with municipal rates shown as part of the provincial schedule → 2026 base tranches ($62,900 / $315,000 / $552,300), with municipal rates identified as separate by-law territory

  Source: Ville de Montréal: how property transfer duties are calculated

  Updated: Buy a home: Quebec, Private home sale: Quebec, Home affordability: Quebec

• Verified 2026-07-28 · Quebec · Home sale

  Quebec announced a refundable first-time buyer tax credit on 17 April 2026, retroactive to homes acquired on or after 1 January 2026. It reimburses the droit de mutation (welcome tax) up to $5,875 (100% of the first $5,000 of duty paid plus 25% of the next $3,500), phasing out on a transfer-duty tax base from $750,000 to $1,000,000. You qualify if, in the year of acquisition or the four preceding years, you did not occupy a dwelling that you or your spouse owned; owning a rental you never lived in does not disqualify you.

  No Quebec first-time buyer transfer-duty credit → Refundable credit up to $5,875, retroactive to January 1, 2026

  Source: Finances Québec / Revenu Québec

  Updated: Private home sale: Quebec