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A residential street of older Ottawa homes on a clear day
Property Cost Breakdown

How much down payment do you need to buy a home in Ottawa? — the minimum, the 20% question, and where the money comes from

The minimum down payment is federal and it is not a flat 5%: it steps at $500,000 and again at $1.5 million, above which mortgage insurance is not available at all. Under 20% down you pay a CMHC premium, and in Ontario the sales tax on that premium is the one piece you cannot roll into the mortgage. The FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan are where most first down payments now come from — and both punish being opened the same week you make an offer.

August 3, 2026 Updated August 3, 2026
An air source heat pump outside an Ottawa home in winter
Ottawa Homeowner Guide

Home energy rebates in Ottawa — heat pumps, insulation, and the money you have to claim before you start

The federal grant most people still ask about is closed. What replaced it is income-tested. But the provincial rebates on a heat pump, insulation and windows are substantial and open to everyone, and the City of Ottawa lends against energy efficiency work at a fixed rate over twenty years, repaid through your property tax bill. The trap is sequencing: several of these have to be applied for before the work is done, not after.

August 2, 2026 Updated August 2, 2026
Snow melting away from the foundation of an Ottawa home in spring
Ottawa Homeowner Guide

The Ottawa spring home maintenance checklist — find out what winter did before it costs you

Spring in Ottawa is not a gardening season, it is an inspection season. Five months of freeze-thaw, ice loading and road salt have just finished working on your house, and the melt is the one time of year the drainage problems show themselves. Here is the spring maintenance checklist in the order the thaw demands it — roof and ice-dam damage, the melt test, regrading the ground you could not touch in November, frost heave, and getting the air conditioning looked at before every technician in the city is booked.

August 2, 2026
Staining a wooden deck at an Ottawa home in summer
Ottawa Homeowner Guide

The Ottawa summer home maintenance checklist — the only season long enough to fix things properly

Summer is the quietest maintenance season and the most wasted one. It is the only stretch of the year when the exterior is dry, the ground is workable, trades are bookable and nothing is an emergency — which makes it the season to do the work that becomes impossible in November. Humidity and the basement, the deck and fence, exterior paint and caulk, the roof you can finally look at, and why the smartest thing you can do in August is book your furnace service.

August 2, 2026
A plow windrow across the end of a driveway on an Ottawa street
Ottawa Homeowner Guide

The Ottawa winter home maintenance checklist — the season you manage rather than prepare for

By January the preparation is done and winter is something you operate. This is the in-season checklist: ice dams and what they actually mean, roof snow load, keeping pipes from freezing, the condensation on your windows that is telling you something, and the two City of Ottawa rules that catch homeowners out every year — the windrow is yours, and pushing snow onto the road is against the by-law.

August 2, 2026 Updated August 2, 2026
An Ottawa kitchen part-way through a renovation
Property Cost Breakdown

Renovation costs in Ottawa — what things cost, and which renovations add value

There is no official price list for renovation work, which is why every number you find online disagrees with the last one. This is what a kitchen renovation, a bathroom renovation, a basement renovation, a roof and an electrical panel upgrade typically cost in Ottawa, what each range assumes, and which renovations actually return their money when you sell. The honest headline: the only real number is three written quotes.

August 2, 2026 Updated August 2, 2026
A sump pit and floor drain in an Ottawa basement
Before You Buy

Basement water in Ottawa — seepage, overland flooding and sewer backup

Three different problems get called a wet basement, they have different causes, different fixes and different insurance, and telling them apart is most of the work. What to look for at a viewing, and the City of Ottawa rebates that pay a large share of the fix — up to $3,000 for a sump pump and $2,500 for an outdoor storm backwater valve.

August 1, 2026
An Ottawa street in winter with a for-sale sign in the snow
Before You Buy

Buying a house in winter in Ottawa — what you gain and what you cannot see

Ottawa's winter market is thinner in both directions: fewer listings, and fewer buyers competing for them. That can work in your favour. What does not is that snow hides the roof, the grading and the driveway, frozen ground says nothing about spring drainage, and some systems cannot be tested at all. How to buy well in February.

August 1, 2026
A part-built home in an Ottawa subdivision
New Build Centre

Buying a new build on assignment — and the closing extras builders add

Two things blindside new-build buyers. Taking over someone else's purchase agreement is a different transaction from buying from a builder, and since May 2022 every assignment sale of new housing is taxable for GST/HST. And on closing day, adjustments and extras get added to a price you thought was fixed. What to establish before signing either.

August 1, 2026 Updated August 1, 2026