On a real renovation invoice, the 14.5% MHRTC credit applies only to costs left after excluded items (appliances, financing, routine maintenance) come off the top — not the invoice total. If the work doesn't create a self-contained secondary unit, the Home Accessibility Tax Credit may still apply to up to C$20,000 of eligible expenses, and buying a property specifically to renovate for a secondary unit still triggers provincial land transfer tax on the purchase, which the MHRTC does nothing to offset.
Working the credit on an actual renovation invoice, not the sticker price
CRA's own line for the credit sets the 2025 rate at 14.5% of qualifying expenditures, up to a C$50,000 cap, for a maximum credit of C$7,250. Qualifying expenditures are the invoice total minus excluded items — the 14.5% never applies to the full contractor bill if that bill includes anything CRA excludes.
No self-contained unit? The Home Accessibility Tax Credit is a different program, not a fallback rate
A renovation that adds grab bars, a ramp, or wider doorways but no private kitchen, bathroom and entrance doesn't meet MHRTC's self-contained-unit test. That doesn't mean no credit exists — the Home Accessibility Tax Credit allows a qualifying individual to claim up to C$20,000 per year in eligible expenses. CRA's own page for this credit, as read for this article, states the C$20,000 expense ceiling but does not itself state the credit rate applied to that base — so this page will not convert that C$20,000 into an estimated dollar credit; confirm the current-year rate directly with CRA before budgeting a specific refund figure.
Buying a property specifically to add a secondary unit still costs land transfer tax
A family that buys a new property specifically to renovate it for a multigenerational secondary unit pays land transfer tax on the purchase itself, under the buying province's standard brackets — Ontario's, for example, run 0.5% to C$55,000, 1.0% to C$250,000, 1.5% to C$400,000, and 2.0% above that. The MHRTC credit only ever applies to the renovation invoice; it does nothing to reduce the tax paid at closing on the purchase that made the renovation possible. Budgeting for both separately avoids the surprise of a land transfer tax bill eating into the cash set aside for the build.
The C$50,000 cap against real construction-cost movement, and what a bigger footprint can do to property tax
Statistics Canada's residential building construction price index rose 0.5% nationally in the second quarter of 2026, with city-level moves ranging from +2.6% in Québec to −0.8% in Toronto — a reminder that the C$50,000 qualifying-expenditure cap is a fixed dollar figure against a construction cost base that keeps moving. Adding finished, assessable square footage can also change what a home is assessed at for property tax: Toronto's own 2026 combined residential rate is 0.767311% of assessed value, so a reassessment following a secondary-unit build is an ongoing carrying cost the one-time MHRTC credit doesn't touch.
Methodology
The worked credit example applies CRA's own stated 2025 rate and cap to a qualifying-expenditure base computed by subtracting CRA's own excluded-cost categories from a hypothetical invoice; no exclusion amount or percentage is invented — only the invoice total and the two illustrative excluded line items are hypothetical, and the arithmetic follows directly from CRA's published 14.5%/C$50,000 figures.
Sources
- Canada Revenue Agency — Multigenerational home renovation tax credit (MHRTC), line 45355 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Canada Revenue Agency — Home accessibility expenses, line 31285 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Statistics Canada — Building construction price indexes, second quarter 2026 — accessed 2026-09-21
- City of Toronto — Property Tax Rates and Fees — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Ontario — Calculating land transfer tax — accessed 2026-09-21