CRA indicates that a home is not acquired for FHSA purposes until it become habitable

Regarding an individual (Mr. X) who signed an agreement with a contractor to build a single-family home on his land and then made his FHSA withdrawal before the targeted date for the house becoming habitable, CRA referred to the requirement in para. (a) of the “qualifying withdrawal” definition that Mr. X have begun, or intended not later than one year after his “acquisition” of the qualifying home, to use it as his principal place of residence, and stated:

[T]he CRA considers that the home is generally acquired by the individual when it becomes habitable.

In other words, the time period for the use test does not start running until the property is habitable.

In the scenario where Mr. X instead will construct the home himself, but has written agreements with trades such as a plumber and electrician to accomplish this, CRA referred to the requirement in para. (c) of the “qualifying withdrawal” definition that Mr. X have entered into an agreement prior to the withdrawal time for the acquisition or construction of the qualifying home before October 1 of the following calendar year. CRA indicated that this requirement could be satisfied by his agreements with the trades, provided that those agreements showed “that sufficiently significant work was undertaken to complete the construction of the qualifying home before October 1 of the calendar year following [the withdrawal].”

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of 3 November 2023 APFF Financial Strategies Roundtable, Q.2 under s. 146.6(1) - “qualifying withdrawal” - (a), (c).