N.S. pilot program cuts down payment requirements for first-time homebuyers

HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government says it’s the first province in Canada to slash the minimum down payment buyers are required to save in order to purchase their first home.

Housing Minister John White announced Tuesday the First-time Homebuyers Program, a four-year pilot that will lower the usual five per cent down payment to two per cent for participating first-time buyers.

The government will guarantee the mortgages, to be delivered through participating credit unions. If a buyer defaults and the home is sold for less than the outstanding mortgage balance, the province will make up 90 per cent of the lender’s shortfall.

“Home ownership has been slipping away,” White said Tuesday during a news conference at the East Coast Credit Union in downtown Halifax.

“We hear that from 20-, 30-year-olds, that home ownership is gone. And they really want that back. And this is an opportunity to bring that back to them.”

Statistics Canada says new home prices have been dropping across the country since hitting a peak in 2022, with the decrease accelerating throughout the first 10 months of 2025.

Toronto slid 2.8 per cent and Vancouver prices were off 1.6 per cent between January and October. Halifax, meanwhile, saw the fastest rise in new housing prices in the country, with a 4.9 per cent increase.

Statistics Canada estimates the city’s population was almost 545,000 in 2025, an increase of about 15 per cent, more than 70,000 people, since 2020. The agency says new construction has not kept pace, with just 190 new dwellings coming online in Halifax per 1,000 in population growth. Communities across Nova Scotia are also reporting a housing crunch and increased homelessness.

Dan Roberts, director of retail banking and member experience at the East Coast Credit Union, says many renters can’t save up the five per cent down payment needed to buy property. In the third quarter of 2025, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Halifax was $1,840.

“We see a huge need. We see more people than ever that are actually paying higher rent than what their actual mortgage payment could technically be,” Roberts told reporters.

To qualify for the new program, homebuyers must have a household income of $200,000 or less, pass the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. stress test and have a credit score of at least 630. People who haven’t owned a home for at least four years may also qualify.

Interest rates are capped at prime plus two per cent, and there’s typically no need for insurance on mortgages where the down payment is less than 20 per cent, offering up more savings.

In Halifax and the Municipality of East Hants, a fast-growing bedroom community within driving distance of the capital, buyers can purchase properties worth up to $570,000. The cap is $500,000 for the rest of the province. White admitted there may not be many properties under the cap in downtown Halifax, but suggested there may be homes and land available in the suburbs and outskirts.

“I realize $570,000 in Halifax is tight. It is, there’s no doubt about that. Outside of Halifax, it’s really not. Five-hundred-thousand will easily get a first-time home,” he said.

There’s a patchwork of incentives for first-time homebuyers across the country. At the federal level, Ottawa offers tax-free savings accounts and the ability to use a portion of a person’s registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) to buy a first home. The government has also introduced a bill that would rebate the GST, or the federal portion of the HST, for first-timers purchasing a home of up to $1 million. The bill has worked its way through the House and is currently before the Senate.

Ontario has proposed a similar change that would offer a provincial sales tax rebate on homes of up to $1 million.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick all offer various levels of loans for first-time buyers. Newfoundland and Labrador and P.E.I. also offer assistance on closing costs.

Manitoba has financial assistance and down payment programs for low-income households that are forgivable under certain conditions, such as living in the home for 15 years.

Saskatchewan and Quebec both offer small tax credits and British Columbia has a program that exempts qualifying first-time buyers from property transfer tax on the first $500,000 of a home’s value.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2026.

Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press