06:52 AM EDT, 03/26/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The province of Ontario announced Wednesday that it will, with the cooperation of Canada's federal government, extend the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) rebate on new home purchases to cover all buyers -- not just first-timers -- for a period of one year, said Bank of Montreal (BMO).

This will fully apply to homes up to $1 million and be scaled down gradually after, noted the bank.

This is another move aimed at helping homebuilders clear out inventory, stated BMO.

An announcement earlier in the week will see the Building Ontario Fund partner with the private sector to buy up unsold inventory for rental conversion, pointed out the bank.

As it stands now, the new condo market is effectively dormant, with Urbanation reporting just 262 sales in Q4 -- a record low -- against more than 20,000 unsold units. That's almost 20 years of unsold inventory at the current sales pace, added BMO.

There is also about nine months of supply on the resale market, which might now be trading below replacement --building -- cost anyway, according to the bank.