Presale GST Rebate: Do You Still Qualify If It Closes in 2027 or 2028?
It's the day you sign that counts for this rebate, not the closing date — sign before 2031 and close before 2036, then price decides how much GST comes back.
By Newbuild · · How we write this
The date that decides your GST rebate is the day you sign the purchase agreement, not the day the building finishes. Sign a presale contract in 2026 and close in 2027 or 2028, and the calendar is not what will cost you the rebate — the price is.
The date that actually matters
The First-Time Home Buyers' GST/HST rebate applies to an agreement of purchase and sale entered into on or after March 20, 2025, and before 2031. That's the contract date, not the closing date. A presale you sign this year, next year, or any year through 2030 clears that test the moment you sign.
The construction and completion windows are wide too. Construction has to begin before 2031, the building has to be substantially completed before 2036, and ownership has to transfer to you before 2036. A project completing in 2027 or 2028 is nowhere near any of those deadlines. If your presale closes on schedule in either of those years, timing is not what decides whether you get money back.
What decides that is the purchase price.
What you get back, by price
The rebate refunds up to 100% of the GST you pay, capped at $50,000, on a home priced at $1 million or less. Between $1 million and $1.5 million, the maximum rebate shrinks as the price rises. At $1.5 million or more, there is no rebate.
BC's GST rate on a new home is 5%. Here's what that means at three price points:
| Purchase price | GST paid (5%) | Rebate you get back |
|---|---|---|
| $900,000 | $45,000 | $45,000 — full amount, under the $50,000 cap |
| $1,200,000 | $60,000 | $30,000 — 60% of the $50,000 maximum |
| $1,500,000 | $75,000 | $0 |
The $1.2 million figure uses the same reduction CRA applies across the whole $1 million–$1.5 million band: the maximum rebate shrinks in proportion to how close the price is to $1.5 million. CRA's own example shows a $1.25 million home landing at exactly half the maximum, $25,000 — the same math that produces $30,000 at $1.2 million and $0 the instant you cross $1.5 million.
That $1.5 million line is a cliff, not a slope. A home at $1,499,900 still gets a rebate. A home at $1,500,100 gets nothing.
Where that shows up in real presales
Our catalogue has active presales sitting right on these numbers, all completing in 2027 or 2028:
- Komo in Burquitlam, Coquitlam, prices to $950,000, completes 2027 — every unit clears the $1 million line and would get the full rebate on the GST paid.
- Trailside at Lynn in Lynn Valley, North Vancouver, prices to $1,200,000, completes 2027 — a buyer at the top of that range sits in the reduced band, not the full one.
- Little Mountain in Riley Park, Vancouver, prices to $1,500,000, completes 2028 — a unit priced right at the top gets nothing back, while a unit at the low end of the same building, $650,000, clears the $1 million threshold with room to spare.
Two homes in the same building, a few hundred thousand dollars apart, can land on opposite sides of a $50,000 difference in rebate.
Who actually qualifies
The price test is only half of it. You also have to be a first-time buyer under CRA's definition: at least 18, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and you haven't lived in a home you or your spouse or common-law partner owned as your primary residence at any point in the current calendar year or the four before it. Neither of you can have received this rebate before, on any property.
For a presale, the year that gets checked against that four-year window is the year ownership transfers to you — the closing date, not the signing date. So the contract date decides eligibility on timing; the closing date decides eligibility on your living history.
In practice the builder usually credits the rebate against the purchase price around closing. If that doesn't happen, you can file for it yourself within two years of the date ownership transfers. Our GST rebate guide has the calculator for working out your own number once you know the closing price.
What would change this
Two things can move the outcome after you sign. If the final price at closing comes in higher than the presale price you signed at — extras, upgrades, a de-escalation clause that went the wrong way — a price that started under $1.5 million can cross it before closing. And if you or your partner already claimed this rebate on an earlier home, this purchase doesn't qualify no matter what it costs. Outside of those two, a presale signed today and closing in 2027 or 2028 is well inside every date CRA has set. The number that moves is the one on the price tag, not the one on the calendar.