Add/Edit Real Estate Properties

You can enter the properties that you own, or plan to own in the future, as your principal residence, as rental properties, or as recreational properties. If you rent out a portion of your principal residence, you can also specify what proportion of the property is being rented (for tax purposes).
DO NOT enter properties in which you only have a limited partnership (those are best entered as Investments so that you can create an Account for them).
If you have a spouse and the property is held jointly between you, it will pass to the widowing spouse; otherwise, it will go to the estate.
You may set the date of acquisition as a later date if you wish to plan a future purchase. You will then be directed to enter information about how you will fund that purchase. See below if you plan to use the HBP or FHSAs.

You may also be directed to add a (future) mortgage on the property. Please leave the planned sell date blank until you have entered any loan data.
Please enter all values in today's dollars.

If you enter a planned sell date, the net proceeds will be estimated in today's dollars (in case you wish to plan the purchase of another property on that date). If you have a mortgage on the property, please record it in LOANS first; you can then return to this page to view an estimate of the proceeds net of your mortgage balance and an estimate of any loan prepayment penalty and taxes. Mortgage Loans are automatically paid off in the TIME MACHINE when the property is sold. The estimate will illustrate the TIME MACHINE's calculation of sale proceeds; however, the TIME MACHINE will have a more accurate estimate of taxes owing on the sale (if applicable). Although we allow for tax-deductible expenses for all but your principal residence, the MoneyReady App does not depreciate properties and does not consider the Capital Cost Allowance (CCA).

Enter the tax treatment for gains on the sale of the property. For a principal residence enter N/A as the CRA will consider the Principal residence exemption for that property when sold. For other properties, gains/losses could be treated as Income/Losses or as Capital Gains/Losses by the CRA. Please consult with your professional advisors and see the link below if you are frequently buying and selling real estate.

You can plan to turn your principal residence, or principal residence with rental suites, into a 100\% rental property by first selling it at the set sale date, then entering it as a new property bought on the following day. It must have a different name. There will be no tax payable on the sale if that property had always been your solely principal residence, although you will still have to declare the gain and claim the capital gains exception. If you rented a part of the property, you can only claim the exemption on the portion not rented. Similarly, you can turn a rental property into your principal residence by selling the first and buying the second, as the CRA considers a property to be deemed disposed at fair market value when a property changes use. However, there are provisions in the tax code that allow for delaying the capital gains until a property is actually sold, but they are conditions so please consult a professional.
Another common scenario for Canadians is owning a cottage, which in many cases can qualify as your principal residence. In the case of owning both a cottage and a city home, you would need to determine at the time either property is sold which property was your principal residence to minimize taxes at the time of sale or in the future. See the Help on that page.
If you entered more than one principal residence, or if any is set to be sold, a button below your list of properties will allow you to resolve for the TIME MACHINE, which years if any in the past and future, will apply for the principal residence exemption so that it can calculate any applicable capital gains correctly.

HBP
The Home Buyer's Plan (see the link below) allows for a non-taxable withdrawal of up to $35,000, per spouse, from an RRSP for the purchase or building of a principal residence. That money must then be repaid to the account over a span of 15 years, which will begin 2 years after the purchase.
If you still have a balance on an HBP account, or if you plan to use the HBP for a future purchase, check the HBP box. The plan is only available to first-time homebuyers, so please check your eligibility first. You will be directed to enter information about your HBP withdrawals. If both spouses made or will make HBP withdrawals, the property owner must be entered as Joint. The TIME MACHINE will automatically make the appropriate HBP repayments to the set RRSP accounts.
FHSA: Tax-Free First Home Savings Account.
Do not check the HBP box if you are planning to buy the home with funds from FHSAs. In that case, make sure to have entered those accounts in ACCOUNTS and INVESTMENTS first. If there are FHSA accounts for both spouses, make sure to enter the property Owner as Joint. The program will associate the FHSAs with the first eligible principal residence bought. You will need to check the FUTURE TIME MACHINE results to see the downpayment, any CMHC fees, and the amount remaining for which you may plan a future mortgage in LOANS.

The FHSA offers several advantages over the HBP due to its flexibility (with some caveats):

  1. The FHSA allows for a larger tax-free amount to use as a downpayment. The HBP is limited to $35,000, while the HFSA would allow for $40,000 + growth. The caveat is that it'll take time to fund and grow the FSHA, so you may still want to use the HBP instead if you have funds in your RRSP and are planning a home purchase within a few years.
  2. It allows for an additional tax deduction on taxable income that does not impact your RRSP room. If you don't buy a home with the FHSA, you can see this as having an extra amount of RRSP contribution room, as the FHSA will be transferred to an RRSP/RRIF if not used within 15 years of the FSHA opening. So it is advantageous to open an FHSA account if you are eligible, even if you don't end up using it to buy a home. The caveat is that you may be in a higher tax bracket when you finally withdraw the money than when you saved it, which would reduce the end tax benefit.
  3. A withdrawal for a home purchase is tax-free for both the FHSA and the RRSP (through the HBP), but the funds do not have to be repaid over time with the FHSA. The caveat is you may end up with fewer retirement funds, but the HBP repayments are a drain on cash flow that could have been used for home-maintenance costs or to pay down the mortgage, or saved in a TFSA instead.