OTTAWA ― Despite one broken promise, to balance the federal budget by 2019, the Liberal government did offer some measures in yesterday’s budget that would positively affect home improvement dealers. The most important one is new guidelines concerning home ownership. First-time home buyers will be able to get a shared equity mortgage through CMHC to finance part of their purchase.
In addition, the limit that home buyers can draw from RRSP has been increased by $10,000 to $35,000. That program, according to the budget document, is targeted at Canadians who “face legitimate challenges entering housing markets.” While restricted to first-time home buyers, it would also be opened up to individuals coming out of a marriage breakup or common-law relationship. The program’s expected to cost $1.25 billion over the next three years.
(We’ll provide more insights into the latest federal budget, and how it could impact the retail home improvement industry, in next Monday’s eye-popping edition of the Hardlines weekly newsletter!)
