To facilitate access to home ownership, tax relief will be offered to individuals who purchase (or whose spouses purchase) their first principal residence or who, because of a severe disability, acquire a more accessible home for themselves or a disabled person related to them. To that end, the Ministère des Finances announced, in an information bulletin released on April 17, 2026, the creation of a new refundable tax credit for access to homeownership. The new credit will be available as of the 2026 taxation year.

Eligibility requirements

An individual, other than a trust or certain tax-exempt individuals, who is resident in Québec at the end of a taxation year that began after December 31, 2025 (or, if the individual dies in the year, on the date of their death), will be entitled to a refundable tax credit for access to homeownership in respect of the transfer duties imposed by a municipality on the transfer of a qualifying home acquired in the taxation year.

The refundable tax credit for access to homeownership will provide a refund of up to $5,875 in transfer duties paid to a municipality.

For purposes of the tax credit, an individual will be considered to have acquired a qualifying home on the first day on which their right in the housing unit is published in the land register and the housing unit is habitable.

A housing unit is an individual's first housing unit if the following conditions are met:

• The individual did not own, whether alone or jointly, a housing unit they occupied in the period that began at the beginning of the fourth preceding calendar year that ended before the acquisition of the housing unit and ended on the day before the acquisition of the housing unit (the particular period).
• During the particular period, the individual's spouse did not own, whether alone or jointly, a housing unit inhabited by the individual during their marriage, civil union or de facto union.

Note that, to be eligible for the tax credit, the individual or their spouse must have paid the transfer duties.

Calculation of the tax credit

The tax credit is equal to the total of the following amounts:

• 100% of the first $5,000 paid in transfer duties;
• 25% of the $3,500 paid in transfer duties in excess of the first $5,000, if applicable, for additional assistance of up to $875.

A reduction will apply if the basis of imposition (which generally corresponds to the market value of the immovable at the time of acquisition) used to calculate the transfer duties exceeds $750,000. The tax credit will therefore be reduced by an amount corresponding to 2.35% of the amount by which the basis of imposition for the transfer duties exceeds $750,000, such that the tax credit will be $0 if the basis of imposition reaches $1 million.

If, for a taxation year, more than one individual is eligible for the tax credit in respect of a qualifying home, the total of the amounts that each of them can claim cannot exceed the amount that would be allowed if only one of them were eligible for the tax credit for the year.

Advance payment

If an individual believes that they are entitled to the refundable tax credit for access to homeownership in respect of a qualifying home for a taxation year that began after December 31, 2025, they can apply for an advance payment, provided the following conditions are met:

• The individual is resident in Québec when the application is made.
• The individual or their spouse paid the transfer duties in respect of the qualifying home.
• The basis of imposition used to calculate the transfer duties does not exceed $1 million.
• The individual expects to be entitled to a tax credit of more than $1,000 for the taxation year.
• The individual agrees to receive the advance payments by direct deposit.

The application must be made no later than December 1 of the taxation year concerned (information on how to make such an application will be provided at a later date).

For more information, see information bulletin 2026-2 (PDF – 266 KB), published by the Ministère des Finances.