The Home Buyers' Plan repayment cliff starts in 2027 — and 2026 is your cheap year

The Home Buyers' Plan lets you pull money out of an RRSP tax-free to buy a first home — currently up to $60,000 per person. It isn't a withdrawal so much as a loan from yourself: you have 15 years to put every dollar back.

For most of the last decade, repayments started the second year after the withdrawal. Then Ottawa added temporary relief: anyone whose first HBP withdrawal fell between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 got three extra years, pushing the start to the fifth year after.

That relief is now running out of road.

When your first repayment year actually lands

• First withdrawal in 2022 → first repayment year is 2027
• 2023 → 2028
• 2024 → 2029
• 2025 → 2030
• Withdrew before 2022? No relief — you've been repaying since the second year after.
• Withdrew in 2026 or later? Under the rules as they stand today, you're back on the two-year clock — but see below.

One proposal to watch. The 2026 spring economic update proposed extending the five-year grace period to anyone making a first HBP withdrawal through December 31, 2028. If it's legislated, a 2026 withdrawal wouldn't start repayment until 2031 rather than 2028. As of the CRA's current guidance the relief still ends with the 2025 cohort, so treat the extension as proposed, not banked.

The 2022 cohort is the big one. It's the group that withdrew into the peak of the pandemic buying wave, and it's the group whose grace period expires with this calendar year.

What the annual bill looks like

The minimum is mechanical: your HBP balance divided by 15.

• A $35,000 withdrawal (the old limit) → $2,333 a year, about $195 a month.
• A $60,000 withdrawal (today's limit) → $4,000 a year, about $333 a month.
• A couple who each took the maximum → $8,000 a year between them.

In later years the formula becomes balance ÷ years remaining, so paying extra early permanently lowers every payment after it.

Skipping a repayment isn't a missed bill — it's income. Whatever you don't repay gets added to line 12900 of your return and taxed at your marginal rate, and that RRSP room is gone for good.

At a 30% marginal rate, a missed $2,333 repayment costs roughly $700 in tax and quietly erases $2,333 of retirement savings you'd already earned.

The move that makes 2026 worth using

Here's the part that turns this into a 2026 story rather than a 2027 one: repayments made before your repayment period starts still count. The CRA applies them against your first required year.

So a 2022 withdrawer who contributes and designates $2,333 in 2026 walks into 2027 with the first year already handled. Contribute more than that and the surplus reduces the minimum for every remaining year.

Three rules worth knowing before you do it:

• Repayments don't use RRSP deduction room. You can repay even if your deduction limit is zero.
• You can't deduct them. A dollar designated as an HBP repayment is not a deductible contribution — so if you have room and a high-income year, weigh which use is worth more.
• It has to be your own plan. Spousal contributions don't qualify, and you cannot repay an HBP into an FHSA.

Designating is a one-line job on Schedule 7, line 24600. Your HBP balance and next year's required amount show up on the statement that comes with your notice of assessment.

If you haven't bought yet

The HBP and the FHSA can both be used on the same purchase, which is why the sequencing matters. The FHSA gives you a deduction and never has to be paid back; the HBP gives you a bigger cheque but a 15-year obligation attached to it. Size the down payment you're actually aiming at with the down payment savings calculator, then pressure-test the purchase itself with the home affordability calculator.

The takeaway

If your first HBP withdrawal was in 2022, your grace period ends with this year and a 15-year repayment schedule begins in 2027. The bill is predictable — balance ÷ 15 — and the only real decision is whether you meet it with an RRSP contribution or with taxable income. Making the first repayment during 2026, before you're required to, costs the same dollars and buys you a year of breathing room.

Sources: CRA, "How to repay the amounts withdrawn from your RRSPs under the Home Buyers' Plan" (canada.ca), updated January 2026.