Canada’s federal government has proposed exempting newly built homes from its ban on foreign homebuyers, while extending the existing ban on foreign purchases of resale homes by two years, to January 1, 2029. The proposal was outlined in Budget 2026, tabled on Thursday, November 5, 2026 — it is not yet law, and Ottawa has not announced a start date; legislation and regulations still need to be introduced.
Canada’s foreign-buyer ban took effect in January 2023, originally set to run two years before being extended to January 2027. Budget 2026 now proposes a further extension for existing homes while carving out an exception for new construction, which the government says is meant to attract investment into housing supply without reopening the resale market to the buyers the ban targets.
Supporters argue the change could help developers in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, where thousands of newly built condominium units remain unsold, finance new projects by widening the buyer pool. Real estate agent Lucy Hua said additional buyers could help developers move forward with construction that has stalled for lack of demand. But Yinnon Geva, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Management and Innovation, questioned whether adding demand would do anything to lower prices for Canadians, and suggested the exemption may chiefly benefit developers rather than affordability.
Crucially for any foreign buyer, provincial taxes on non-resident purchases would still apply even if the federal exemption takes effect: Ontario’s 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax and British Columbia’s additional 20% property transfer tax in designated areas operate independently of the federal ban and would not be removed by this change.
