In Edmonton, Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that his government will eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1 million for first-time homebuyers. The prime minister also highlights another announcement he made earlier the day, committing $187 million to help Jasper rebuild after the 2024 wildfires. Responding to questions from reporters, Carney comments on his meeting earlier in the day with Alberta Danielle Smith and is asked about his commitment to building new pipelines to get energy to new markets. The prime minister is also a faces questions on the impact of U.S. tariffs on Alberta’s energy sector. (March 20, 2025)

First time home buyers will not be charged GST (5%) when buying a home, as long as the place they’re buying costs less than $1M. This means that people buying a home for the first time will save up to $50k on their purchase.

Edit: Note, GST is mostly only charged when buying newly built homes, so this won’t have any effect for people buying used homes.

  • MajorMajormajormajor
    5·
    21 hours ago

    Another part to consider is how house sizes have gone up by a fair margin over the past 50 - 70 years. If you look at old bungalows built after the war they are 1000 - 1500 sqft homes, modern builds (around me at least) are all 2500+ sqft. So part of why homes are more expensive is that we’re building more home on each lot (just speaking on fully detached homes here).

    A “starter home” isn’t really a thing anymore.

    • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      18 hours ago

      It seems like we have lots of single bedroom starter condos at 500-900 sqft, but I think those are designed to appeal to investors. 😬

      I think a lot of people would be open to smaller homes/condos (1200 sqft) if they were affordable and nice.