HST & GST rebates
What is the New Residential Rental Property rebate?
The NRRP rebate is the HST rebate available to buyers who rent out a new home rather than living in it. You pay the HST at closing and claim it back from CRA yourself, with a signed one-year lease as support. Builders cannot assign it on your behalf.
The NRRP rebate exists because landlords also pay HST on a new home, and the policy intent is not to tax rental housing out of existence. It is the investor’s equivalent of the new housing rebate, with a very different process.
How it differs from the owner-occupied rebates
| New housing rebate | NRRP rebate | |
|---|---|---|
| Who claims it | Often the builder, by assignment | You, after closing |
| When you get it | Baked into your price | Months after you pay |
| Cash needed at closing | Lower | Full HST amount |
| Key evidence | Primary residence intent | Signed lease, min. one year |
That middle row is the one that matters. The owner-occupied rebates reduce what you bring to closing. The NRRP does not, you fund the HST yourself and recover it later.
What you need to qualify
In broad terms: you bought a new or substantially renovated residential unit, you are not eligible for the owner-occupied rebate, and you lease the unit to a tenant for residential use under a lease of at least one year. The first use of the property has to be as someone’s place of residence, a short-term rental generally will not do it.
You file the claim with CRA using the NRRP forms, supported by your statement of adjustments and the lease.
Timing and deadlines
There is a filing deadline tied to when tax became payable, and it is not generous enough to ignore. Investors who close in the spring and get around to the paperwork the following year sometimes find they have missed it. File promptly.
A note on current Ontario relief
Ontario has also introduced enhanced relief touching new residential rental units. Whether it applies to your specific purchase depends on the timing and the wording of your agreement, and the interaction with the NRRP is exactly the kind of thing worth putting to an accountant who does this regularly. It is not something to resolve from a search result.
What this means for your underwriting
If you are modelling a pre-construction rental, the NRRP belongs in your model as a lagging cash inflow, not as a price reduction. Your cash-to-close is the gross number. Your return calculation should assume several months before the rebate arrives, and should survive the possibility that it is reduced or denied.
Sources