The Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program: What Happened to the $80,000 Loan

Programme status verified 23 July 2026. These programmes change frequently — confirm current status before relying on anything below.

If you have searched for how to apply for the $80,000 secondary suite loan, you have almost certainly found pages explaining the application process in confident detail. Those pages are describing a programme that does not exist and never did.

This is one of the most persistently mis-reported topics in Canadian housing, partly because the programme was announced, expanded, and widely covered before it was quietly dropped. This guide sets out what was promised, what actually happened, and — more usefully — what a homeowner can genuinely access today.

What was the Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program?

The Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program was a proposed federal programme that would have allowed homeowners to borrow up to $80,000 at a low interest rate to build a secondary suite on their property.

It was announced in 2024 and expanded in the December 2024 Fall Economic Statement. The intent was straightforward and popular: make it cheaper for ordinary homeowners to add a rental unit, increasing housing supply without new land or new subdivisions.

It generated a great deal of coverage. It also had a significant knock-on effect on provincial policy, which turns out to matter — see the British Columbia section below.

Is it still available?

No. It was cancelled, and it never became operational.

The programme did not simply close to new applications — it never opened. Budget 2025 confirmed that the Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program was not yet operational and would not be implemented.

The stated reason was overlap. The federal government had, in the meantime, launched a different mechanism — CMHC’s insured refinance product for secondary suites — which achieves a similar goal through the mortgage system rather than through a direct loan. Running both was judged redundant, and the direct-loan programme was dropped in favour of the refinancing route.

So if you are looking for an application form, there isn’t one. If you have seen a page describing eligibility criteria, processing times or how to apply, that page is describing a proposal, not a programme.

What replaced it: CMHC Refinance

This is the real federal route, and it is genuinely useful — it is just structured very differently from an $80,000 loan.

CMHC’s refinance product for secondary suites became available on January 15, 2025. Rather than lending you money directly, it allows you to refinance your existing mortgage against what your property will be worth after the suite is built, and use that borrowing to fund the construction.

The key terms:

• Up to 90% of the as-improved property value — meaningfully higher than the 80% ceiling that normally applies to a refinance
• Properties with up to 4 units, including existing units
• As-improved value must be below $2,000,000
• You must already own the home, and you or a close relative — spouse, common-law partner, parent or child — must live in it or in one of its units
• Funds must go to the construction itself. Equity take-out is not permitted; the borrowing has to be for creating the suite
• The new unit must be self-contained — separate kitchen, bathroom, living space and entrance — suitable for year-round occupancy and compliant with local bylaws and building codes
• No short-term rental. The unit must not be rented for periods under 90 consecutive days
• CMHC approval must be in place before construction starts, or at least at an early stage

That last point catches people out. This is not a programme you apply to after the fact to reimburse yourself. Get the financing approved first.

Whether this is better or worse than the cancelled $80,000 loan depends entirely on your equity position. If you have substantial equity, the refinance route can access considerably more than $80,000. If you have little equity, it may access less — or nothing. That is the honest trade-off, and it is the reason the cancellation was not a straight substitution for everyone.

Confirm current terms with CMHC or a mortgage professional before planning around them.

Provincial and municipal programmes

This is where most published advice goes wrong, so each of these is stated with its current status and a date.

British Columbia — closed

B.C. ran a three-year pilot Secondary Suite Incentive Program, announced in 2023, offering eligible homeowners a forgivable loan to build a secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit.

It stopped accepting applications after March 30, 2025. According to the Province of British Columbia’s March 19, 2025 announcement, the reasons given were “uncertain financial times” and — this is the part worth noting — the fact that the federal government had committed to implement a similar national programme, which the Province did not want to duplicate.

The federal programme in question was the $80,000 Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program. It was then itself cancelled. B.C. homeowners were, in effect, left with neither. If you read in 2024 that a B.C. grant was coming or that a federal one would replace it, both statements have since been overtaken by events.

BC Housing continues to process and administer funds for applicants already approved before the closing date.

Alberta — Calgary’s municipal incentive, with two important limits

The City of Calgary’s Secondary Suite Incentive Program provides qualifying homeowners with up to $10,000 to build and register a secondary suite.

Two conditions matter enormously and are routinely omitted elsewhere:

1. It is waitlisted. As of June 24, 2026, new applications are placed on a waitlist, and the City states funding may not be available for those who apply after that date. Files are added from the waitlist first-come, first-served if funds become available.
2. It applies only to suites built within the main dwelling — explicitly not to backyard or detached suites. If you are planning a garden suite, laneway house or garage suite, this programme does not apply to you.

Alberta’s SHARP and RAMP — commonly miscited, and not suite programmes

You will see these two listed as ways to fund a secondary suite. That is a misreading of both.

SHARP — the Seniors Home Adaptation and Repair Program — offers Alberta seniors a low-interest home equity loan of up to $40,000 for repairs, adaptations and renovations to their own primary residence. Eligibility requires a total annual income of $75,000 or less and a minimum of 25% home equity. The current rate is 4.45%, reviewed each April and October, with no monthly repayments required. Its purpose is helping seniors remain in their homes — it is not a secondary suite programme, and suite construction is not listed among its stated purposes. If you think your project might qualify, ask the programme directly rather than assuming.

RAMP — the Residential Access Modification Program — provides grants to lower-income Albertans with mobility challenges to modify their home for accessibility: up to $12,000 per person per benefit year and up to $24,000 per person within 10 years. Eligibility is narrow — a wheelchair user of any age, or a senior aged 65+ who uses a four-wheel walker on an ongoing basis, or someone with a listed progressive neuro-degenerative condition — and subject to strict income thresholds. It funds accessibility modifications to your own living space. It is not a route to building a rental suite.

Both are real, valuable programmes. Neither is what they are frequently described as online.

Ontario — no equivalent homeowner grant

Ontario does not run a provincial homeowner secondary-suite grant comparable to B.C.’s closed pilot. Two programmes commonly cited are no longer available: the Home Efficiency Rebate Plus (HER+) has ended, and Peel Region’s “My Home” programme has closed.

What Ontario does offer is regulatory rather than financial: under Bill 23, most residential lots must permit up to three units as-of-right, and the second and third units are exempt from development charges and parkland dedication. On a GTA lot, that exemption is worth a substantial amount — it is simply a fee you avoid rather than money you receive.

The tax-side supports that do exist

Two federal measures are live, and both are worth understanding because they apply where the grants don’t.

The Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit (MHRTC) is a refundable federal credit for creating a self-contained secondary unit so a senior — or an adult eligible for the disability tax credit — can live with a qualifying relative. It covers up to $50,000 of qualifying expenditures. The credit was legislated at 15%, giving the widely quoted $7,500 maximum, but this class of credit is calculated at the lowest federal personal income tax rate, which Bill C-4 reduced to 14% for 2026 and later years — producing $7,000 at that rate. You will see both figures published. Confirm the amount for your tax year with the CRA or an accountant.

Critically, the MHRTC applies to a unit for a qualifying family member. There is no equivalent credit for building a suite to rent to a tenant.

The enhanced GST rental rebate relieves the federal GST on qualifying new purpose-built rental construction — but as PwC Canada sets out, the property must contain “four or more stand-alone apartments, each with a private kitchen, bath and living area, or 10 or more residential units,” with at least 90% held for long-term rental. Construction must begin after September 13, 2023 and before January 1, 2031, and be completed by December 31, 2035.

A single secondary suite does not qualify. This one only becomes relevant if you are building at fourplex scale or above.

How to finance a suite today

Stripped of the cancelled programmes, the realistic options are:

1. CMHC-insured refinance — the main federal route, up to 90% of as-improved value on properties with up to four units, subject to the conditions above. Approval before construction.
2. Conventional refinance or a HELOC — lower leverage (typically to 80%), but fewer conditions and no requirement that funds go to construction.
3. Construction financing drawn in stages, converted to a standard mortgage on completion — more common for detached builds.
4. Municipal incentives where they apply — Calgary’s $10,000, if you are in Calgary, building inside the main dwelling, and prepared to join a waitlist.
5. Fee exemptions rather than funding — Ontario’s development charge exemption on second and third units, Toronto’s development charges deferral on rear-yard suites.
6. Tax credits after the fact — the MHRTC where the occupant qualifies.

The pattern worth noticing: Canada has largely moved from grants to leverage and fee relief. That is a meaningful shift. It rewards homeowners with equity and penalises those without, and it makes the financing structure a bigger part of project feasibility than it used to be.

Our financing and grants guide tracks what is currently live, and our financing page covers how projects at different scales get funded.

Work out what you can actually finance

Because the funding landscape has shifted from grants to leverage, the question that decides most projects is no longer “what can I apply for” — it’s how much your property can support once the suite is built, and whether your project clears the thresholds that matter.

HouseLyft’s free property assessment covers what your lot permits and what configurations are realistic. If your project is likely to need structured financing, get qualified is the faster route. Otherwise, start with a free report.