The client
A newcomer family in Alma bought a $298,000 home, with a $12,000 withdrawal from their child's Registered Disability Savings Plan originally budgeted into the down payment.
Purchase price
$298,000, Alma
10% down, insured
RDSP withdrawal considered
$12,000
Assumed to work like an RRSP HBP withdrawal
RDSP's own Assistance Holdback Amount
$9,000
Grants and bonds paid in over the preceding 10 years
Household income
$6,600/month
The problem
Having just learned about the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan, the family assumed a similar early-withdrawal path existed for their child's Registered Disability Savings Plan. It does not: an RDSP has no HBP-equivalent at all.
What withdrawing $12,000 would actually have cost
- ▸The RDSP's proportional repayment rule requires $3 repaid for every $1 withdrawn, of grants and bonds paid in over the preceding 10 years
- ▸That formula, applied to $12,000, comes to $36,000 -- but the repayment is capped at the plan's own $9,000 Assistance Holdback Amount
- ▸Capped or not, the plan would still have lost $21,000 in total (the withdrawal plus the capped repayment) to net the family $12,000
The family had planned the down payment around a withdrawal that would have cost the RDSP nearly twice what it produced.
The numbers
Leaving the RDSP untouched and funding the down payment from other savings is the only version of this file that did not cost the plan its own government contributions.
| Funding the down payment without touching the RDSP | Amount |
|---|---|
| Down payment (10%) | $29,800 |
| Base mortgage | $268,200 |
| Ratio check at the qualifying rate | Figure |
|---|---|
| Payment at the qualifying rate (7.05%), 25 years | $1,945/mo |
| GDS (payment + $270 tax + $105 heat) ÷ $6,600 income | 35.2% |
| TDS (GDS numerator + $215 car loan) ÷ $6,600 income | 38.4% |
35.2% and 38.4% sit comfortably inside CMHC's 39% GDS and 44% TDS maximums, funded entirely from the family's own other savings. The $12,000 RDSP withdrawal considered would have triggered a formula repayment of $36,000, capped in practice at the plan's own $9,000 Assistance Holdback Amount -- a real cost avoided entirely, consistent with how down payment sources across Canada rarely involve a registered disability account at all.
The solution
A courtier hypothecaire licensed under Quebec's Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services corrected the family's assumption before a single dollar left the RDSP.
First, confirmed with the RDSP's own plan administrator that no Home Buyers' Plan-style withdrawal exists for a registered disability savings plan. The RRSP program the family had just learned about has no equivalent here.
Second, calculated the proportional repayment the considered $12,000 withdrawal would have triggered, showing the plan's own $9,000 Assistance Holdback Amount as the real, capped cost.
Third, funded the full $29,800 down payment from the family's other, unencumbered savings instead, leaving the RDSP's grants and bonds fully intact for the child's own future use.
The outcome
The purchase funded insured at 35.2% GDS and 38.4% TDS, with Quebec's welcome tax on the $298,000 purchase coming to $2,666 and the RDSP's grants and bonds fully intact.
Both ratios sit comfortably inside CMHC's 39% GDS and 44% TDS maximums; the file was never close to either ceiling once the down payment was funded from other savings.
What to take from this file
- 01An RDSP has no Home Buyers' Plan equivalent. Learning about one registered program's early-withdrawal rules does not mean another registered program works the same way.
- 02The proportional repayment rule can cost far more than it releases. $3 repaid for every $1 withdrawn, of the preceding 10 years' grants and bonds, can turn a modest withdrawal into a much larger loss.
- 03Calculate the actual Assistance Holdback Amount before assuming the worst -- or the best. The repayment is capped at this plan-specific figure, not an open-ended multiple.
- 04Fund a down payment from unencumbered savings whenever a registered account's own withdrawal rules are unclear. Confirm the rules before touching the account, not after.
Sources
Every regulatory figure in this file traces to one of these primary sources. Client details and anything that varies by lender are illustrative, as flagged below.
- ▸CMHC — Purchase (Mortgage Loan Insurance) — default-insurance premium schedule by LTV band (25-year amortization).
- ▸CMHC — CMHC Home Start — minimum down payment tiers (5%/10%) and the $1.5M insured price cap.
- ▸OSFI — Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages — the minimum qualifying rate — greater of contract rate + 2% or 5.25%.
- ▸CMHC — CMHC Reviews Underwriting Criteria — GDS 39% / TDS 44% maximums and the 600 credit-score floor for insured files.
- ▸Provincial/territorial mortgage-broker legislation fetched directly (bclaws.gov.bc.ca, legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca, fcaa.gov.sk.ca, web2.gov.mb.ca, nslegislature.ca, assembly.nl.ca) plus FCNB's own site for NB and CanLII's index for PE — see notes for per-province method — provincial mortgage regulators and licence titles.
- ▸Gouvernement du Québec — Droits sur les mutations immobilières — Quebec's transfer duties ('welcome tax') — 2026 indexed brackets.
Illustrative in this file — lender-specific, not rules:
- ▸5.05% contract rate — rates move daily; not a quote.
- ▸the $12,000 RDSP withdrawal considered and the $9,000 Assistance Holdback Amount — specific to this plan's own contribution and grant/bond history; every RDSP's holdback amount is calculated from its own 10-year record.
Authority & provenance
How this case file was built
We publish the origin, the verification method and the reviewer for every case file, so you can judge how far to trust it before you rely on it with a client.
Where it comes from
Derived from files handled by Treadstone’s fulfillment desk and from scenarios contributed by partner brokerages. Names, employers, exact amounts and dates are changed so no client or file is identifiable.
Provenance: Composite — a pattern seen repeatedly on fulfilled files, not a single transaction.
What is verified
Every regulatory figure traces to a primary source listed above and was checked against it on the date shown. The arithmetic is recomputed by machine on every rebuild.
Anything that varies by lender is labelled illustrative rather than stated as a rule.
Who reviewed it
Reviewed for Canadian regulatory accuracy before publication, and re-checked whenever a cited rule changes.
Reviewed by: Nicholas Parson, Treadstone Associates — reviews every case file before publication.
This case file is professional reference material for licensed mortgage professionals. It is not advice to a borrower, and it is not a lender commitment. Insurer rules, qualifying rates and provincial taxes change — confirm the current position with the insurer, regulator or lender before you rely on any figure here in a live file.