HBP, FHSA, a gift, savings: where is your down payment coming from?

Pull the complete statements before you move anything. For an HBP or FHSA withdrawal, check your eligibility and the current processing time. For a gift, we need to know who’s giving and see the transfer in the account.

• The account it came from and whose name is on it
• The date and amount of each transfer
• What stays aside for closing costs

A $55,000 down payment: $20,000 of savings sitting in an account for two years, $15,000 from an FHSA withdrawal, $20,000 gifted by parents. The lender wants three different proofs. For the savings, three months of statements showing the accumulation. For the FHSA, the account statement, the withdrawal request, and the deposit. For the gift, a signed letter saying nothing is repayable, the statement showing the deposit, and sometimes the parent’s statement. If the $55,000 lands in a single account the day before the offer, without those records, the source-of-funds check can take two weeks, right when the financing condition expires.

If the entire down payment has been sitting in one account for more than 90 days, the trail is simple: three statements are enough. The HBP does not apply if you owned your home in the past four years, apart from the exceptions in the program, and the FHSA requires the account to have been opened in advance to build room. A gift from a friend rather than an immediate family member is not accepted by insurers as a down payment; the money then has to have been in your account longer, or another structure is needed.

Once the sources are known, the sequence matters. The FHSA comes out first when possible: a qualifying withdrawal is not taxed and does not have to be repaid. The HBP comes next: the withdrawal is a loan you make to yourself, repaid into your RRSP over fifteen years, with an annual portion added to your income if you do not put it back. Both need a form and a few days of processing, and the money must be in your account before the notary appointment, not that same morning. The gift is documented when it is made: a letter signed by the donor, date, amount, a statement that nothing is to be repaid. Your savings do not move until everything else is in place. Make the list with dates: withdrawal, deposit, statement, and keep every piece. The lender asks for nothing more than that, but it asks for all of it.

See the complete purchase guide

CRA — Home Buyers’ Plan. Reviewed August 12, 2026.