Last week, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), announced the details and expected launch dates of two programs targeted at first-time homebuyers: The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) and the Shared Equity Mortgage Provider (SEMP) fund. 

The FTHBI, expected to launch September 2, 2019, is a targeted program with limited eligibility designed to assist some first-time home buyers entering the market via a shared equity mortgage with CMHC. Qualification is capped at total income of $120,000 and a borrowing limit of four times’ income. The federal government has allocated $1.25 billion over three years (starting September 2019) for this program.

The SEMP fund is a 5-year program scheduled to launch on July 31, 2019. Also administered by CMHC, the SEMP is a $100 million lending fund designed to attract new providers of shared equity mortgage and encourage additional housing supply via two funding streams: Pre-construction (stream 1) and Direct Shared Equity Mortgages (stream 2). For more details, click here.