In her first official announcement as Quebec premier, Christine Fr\u00e9chette said Friday her government plans to reimburse part of the hefty \u201cwelcome tax\u201d Quebecers must pay when they purchase their first home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this announcement, I am convinced that more young people will be able to become homeowners and improve their lives,\u201d said Fr\u00e9chette, at a news conference in Laval, where she was joined by Finance Minister Eric Girard, Municipal Affairs Minister Genevi\u00e8ve Guilbault, Housing Minister Caroline Proulx, International Relations and Francophonie Minister Christopher Skeete, as well as several local MNAs and municipal politicians from the region.<\/p>\n
Noting the average cost of a first home almost doubled between 2015 and 2025 across the province, Fr\u00e9chette said the government will reimburse up to $5,875 of the real estate transfer tax, also known as the welcome tax, for first-time home purchases.<\/p>\n
Municipalities will continue to collect the welcome tax \u2013 which can represent tens of thousands of dollars above and beyond the cost of a property \u2013\u00a0on every real estate transfer. But the province will reimburse first-time buyers through a new provincial tax credit.<\/p>\n
The first reimbursements could be doled out as early as next fall, the premier said, since the measure will apply to purchases made from Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
First-time homebuyers will be eligible for reimbursement of the first $5,000 paid in real estate transfer taxes and to 25 per cent of the portion of the tax that exceeds that amount, which could represent an additional reimbursement of up to $875.<\/p>\n
The measure aims to reduce the cost of homes worth less than $1 million, and will help to reduce the financial burden for about 38,000 Quebec households. <\/p>\n
Asked whether a couple could benefit from the rebate if only one of them was a first-time buyer, Girard specified that to be eligible neither can have owned a home in the year of purchase or within the past four years.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette noted the measure is for those who \u201creally need it\u201d and so for homes costing more than $750,000, the tax credit will be progressively reduced and no rebate will be given for homes costing more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
The measure is expected to cost the province $140 million per year, with the average rebate amounting to about $3,700.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the tax rebate wouldn\u2019t simply cause housing prices to increase, Fr\u00e9chette said the measure only touches about 15 per cent of home sales and so is unlikely to do so.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging about 40 per cent of Quebecers are renters, Fr\u00e9chette said, the measure will help them, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we help young renters become owners, that liberates rental housing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fr\u00e9chette added her government intends to make announcements soon about increasing construction of affordable housing.<\/p>\n
The new measure is in addition to existing tools designed to support first-time homebuyers and improve access to home ownership, including the non-refundable tax credit for first-time home buyers of up to $1,400, the Home Buyers\u2019 Plan<\/a>, and the First Home Savings Account<\/a>.<\/p>\n Laval Mayor St\u00e9phane Boyer welcomed the announcement, saying his city is growing fast with housing starts doubling in the last year. \u201cWe are a family-friendly city with about 130,000 family homes, so often Montreal couples who decide to have children will move to Laval to have more space.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyer was among a group of young mayors elected in 2021 who have been pushing the province to modify certain laws and introduce new programs to reduce the cost of housing. He said Laval has managed to double the amount of affordable and social housing since his election. \u201cToday this is a tool that will go with all the others in our toolbox to try to find (housing) solutions for families.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her first official announcement as Quebec premier, Christine Fr\u00e9chette said Friday her government plans to reimburse part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-612136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}