Can a newcomer buy a home in Canada right now?

Since 1 January 2023 there has been a federal statute restricting the purchase of residential property in Canada by non-Canadians. It is real, it carries a fine, and it reaches the people who help with the purchase as well as the buyer. It also has a long list of exceptions, and a great many newcomers fall inside one of them.

This page describes what the legislation and its regulations say. It is not advice about your situation, and immigration status questions are not something a real estate professional is licensed to answer — see who you actually work with for who is.

What the law is, and how long it runs

The statute is the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. It came into force on 1 January 2023.

The Act was written to expire. Section 236 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 repeals it, and section 237(2) of that same statute set the repeal to take effect on the second anniversary of the day the Act came into force. In 2024, section 149 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 replaced that subsection so the repeal instead comes into force on the fourth anniversary — that is, 1 January 2027. CMHC's program page describes the same change as an extension "to January 1, 2027".

As at the date at the top of this page, the Department of Justice consolidation still lists that repeal under "Amendments Not in Force". The prohibition is in force today.

Two cautions worth more than they look:

• This is the kind of rule that gets extended again, or replaced, or allowed to lapse. This page does not predict which. Check the consolidated Act at the source link before you rely on the date.
• Government pages do not update in step with each other. The Government of Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax page, for instance, still describes the federal prohibition as running "from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024". The statute itself is the thing to read.

Who counts as a non-Canadian

The Act applies to a person who is not a Canadian citizen, not a person registered as an Indian under the Indian Act, and not a permanent resident. It also reaches certain corporations and entities that are controlled by, or formed outside, Canada.

If you are a permanent resident, the prohibition does not apply to you. Not "applies with an exception" — the definition simply does not reach you. Nothing on this page about work permits or study permits is relevant to a PR.

What counts as residential property

The Act's definition covers a detached house or similar building containing not more than three dwelling units, and parts of buildings such as a semi-detached house, a rowhouse unit or a residential condominium unit. A building with four or more dwelling units is outside the definition.

The exception that does not help here

The regulations exclude from the definition of residential property anything located in an area of Canada that is not within a census metropolitan area or a census agglomeration. Those are Statistics Canada terms: a census metropolitan area needs a total population of at least 100,000 with a core of at least 50,000, and a census agglomeration a core of at least 10,000.

This is where a lot of general advice goes wrong locally. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census geography puts all eight municipalities this site covers — Amherstburg, Essex, Kingsville, LaSalle, Lakeshore, Leamington, Tecumseh and Windsor — inside the Windsor census metropolitan area. Buying in a smaller town in Essex County does not put a purchase outside the prohibition, because the whole of each of those municipalities is inside the CMA.

Whether a particular address sits inside a particular boundary is a legal question about that address. It belongs with your lawyer, not with a map on an agent's website.

The exceptions that do apply to people

The Act and its regulations set out exceptions. The ones a newcomer in Windsor-Essex is most likely to be looking at:

Temporary residents holding a work permit. A temporary resident who holds a work permit, or is authorized to work in Canada under section 186 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, is excepted if they have 183 days or more of validity remaining on that permit or authorization on the date of purchase, and they have not purchased more than one residential property.

Temporary residents enrolled in study. A temporary resident enrolled in a program of authorized study at a designated learning institution is excepted only if all four of the following hold: they filed all required income tax returns for each of the five taxation years before the year of purchase; they were physically present in Canada for at least 244 days in each of the five calendar years before the year of purchase; the purchase price does not exceed $500,000; and they have not purchased more than one residential property.

Protected persons, within the meaning of subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Spouses and common-law partners. A non-Canadian who purchases with their spouse or common-law partner is excepted where that spouse or partner is a Canadian citizen, a person registered under the Indian Act, a permanent resident, or a person covered by the temporary-resident or protected-person exceptions above.

Prescribed classes, which include certain accredited diplomatic and consular passport holders, foreign nationals granted temporary resident status under a public policy exemption to provide safe haven to those fleeing conflict, and people whose refugee protection claim has been found eligible and referred to the Refugee Protection Division.

Things that are not a purchase

The regulations also say what does not count as a purchase in the first place. Acquiring an interest through death, divorce, separation or a gift is not a purchase. Neither is renting a dwelling unit to a tenant, a transfer under a trust created before the Act came into force, a transfer resulting from a secured creditor exercising a security interest, or an acquisition by a non-Canadian for the purposes of development.

What happens if the rule is broken

The penalty is a fine of not more than $10,000 on summary conviction. On a conviction, the Minister may apply to the superior court of the province for an order that the property be sold; the regulations cap what the non-Canadian can receive from the proceeds at the price they paid.

Two features of the offence provision are worth reading closely.

First, the sale is still valid. Section 5 says a contravention does not affect the validity of the sale. Breaking this rule does not unwind the transaction; it creates a prosecution and a possible court-ordered sale on top of it.

Second, the offence reaches other people. Anyone who counsels, induces, aids or abets a non-Canadian to purchase, knowing the purchase is prohibited, commits the same offence. That includes the real estate professional. It is the reason a registrant will ask about your status early and will want it confirmed in writing rather than in conversation — the question is not idle curiosity, and "we didn't discuss it" is not a defence for either of you.

What to do with this

Establish your position on this before you start writing offers, not after one is accepted. The exceptions turn on precise things — a count of days remaining on a permit, a number of tax years filed, whether you have bought before — and they are questions for a lawyer, who can also look at how the answer interacts with the Ontario tax side, which is a separate set of rules with a separate set of exemptions.

Once eligibility is settled, the next practical problem is usually financing: see what a lender looks at when your credit history is in another country. The general Windsor-Essex purchase process, which is the same whatever your status, is in the buyers' guide, and the arithmetic is in the closing-cost calculator.