Right now, mostly no. Not in the parents' own names. Canada's federal ban stops most people who are not citizens or permanent residents from buying a home in Hamilton, Grimsby or Niagara until at least January 1, 2027. Ontario also charges a 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax on foreign buyers anywhere in the province. What does work is simple. The parents give the money as a true gift to a Canadian relative, a citizen or permanent resident, and that relative buys and owns the home.
The tax alone settles it for most families. Hamilton's average freehold sale price was $659,721 in September 2026, down 10% from a year earlier, per our Hamilton market report for September 2026. On a home at that price, 25% would be $164,930.25 in tax, paid on closing day and never earned back. My own math, as an illustration. That is a second down payment, gone.
I'm Regina Marin-Suarez. I was born in Mexico City, I live in Grimsby, and I've worked in real estate since I was nineteen. Families from Mexico and South America call me about this all the time, usually a few months before a son or daughter starts at McMaster, Mohawk, Brock or Niagara College. My opinion is firm. Don't look for a clever way around the ban. Build the purchase around the right Canadian name, do it cleanly on paper, and the home can still work very well for your child.
What the federal ban stops right now
The law is the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. It started January 1, 2023, and Ottawa has already extended it once, to January 1, 2027. It covers homes inside Canada's census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. Hamilton is one. St. Catharines-Niagara is one. Grimsby falls inside the Hamilton area. Every city I work in, including Thorold and Welland, sits inside the zone.
So who can still buy? Canadian citizens. Permanent residents. Some people with protected status. Work permit holders can qualify under conditions, including enough time left on the permit, and they're limited to one home. International students get only a narrow exception with conditions most first-year students can't meet. My advice to families is to plan as if it does not apply, and have a lawyer confirm it in writing before you count on it.
The ban is about who owns the home, which includes owning a piece of it. Parents abroad can't sit on title next to their child. A student on a study permit usually can't either.
One detail surprises people. The ban defines a home as a building with up to three units, so a true fourplex falls outside it, and some lawyers will raise that with you, but the 25% Ontario tax and the lender's rules still apply, so it's rarely the shortcut it sounds like.
The 25% tax follows foreign money all over Ontario
The federal ban stops at city lines. Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax doesn't. It applies everywhere in the province, on homes with one to six units, at 25%.
This is where mixed plans fall apart. A family says, let's put the cousin in Hamilton on title with the dad in Guadalajara. If any buyer is a foreign national, the tax can land on the whole price, and the ban can block the deal anyway. One name in the wrong spot can sink the whole thing.
There is a rebate for a buyer who later becomes a permanent resident within four years, but it comes with conditions, and you pay first and apply later. I never build a family's budget on a rebate. If it comes, good. If your plan only works with it, the plan doesn't work.
What a Canadian relative can do instead
The clean route has three parts. A Canadian citizen or permanent resident in the family buys the home. The money from abroad arrives as a gift, with nothing owed back. The person who owns it is the person the lender, the lawyer and the Canada Revenue Agency all deal with.
The first thing I ask a family for, before we look at a single listing, is one page, in Spanish is fine, saying three things in plain words: whose name goes on title, whose money it is, and who will live there. You'd be amazed how often the cousin, the parents and the student each give a different answer. It's much cheaper to find that out in my kitchen in Grimsby than at the lawyer's office a week before closing.
The lender will ask for these things on a gift from abroad:
- A signed gift letter saying the money is a gift, never a loan, and nothing is owed back.
- The money sitting in a Canadian bank account in the buyer's name, ahead of closing.
- A paper trail showing where it came from: the parents' account statements, the wire, the deposit here.
- Translations of any documents in Spanish or Portuguese, done properly.
Banks in Canada must check where large sums come from, so a wire that shows up with no history behind it slows everything down. Move the money early. Keep every statement.
And the gift has to be real. If the parents expect to be paid back or quietly keep a share, that isn't a gift. A hidden interest can pull the deal back under the ban and the tax, and it puts the relative in a hard spot with their own lender. So I tell families straight: if you're not ready to give the money away, this isn't your path yet.
Make the student's home pay its own way
This is the part I love. If the family is buying anyway, buy a house with two, three or four units, the student lives in one, and the rent from the others helps carry the mortgage. That's house hacking, and it fits a student's home better than almost any other plan. We wrote more about why Hamilton's first-time buyers house hack instead of renting.
Look at St. Catharines, close to Brock. The median asking price for an up-and-down duplex was $524,900, about $262,450 per unit, across 11 listings over twelve months, per our St. Catharines multiplex report. Those are asking prices, not sales. A self-contained unit in St. Catharines had a median asking rent of $1,700 a month, leasing in a median of 9 days, over the twelve months to October 14, 2026. In Hamilton, the same kind of unit asked $1,800 a month and took 14 days.
The mortgage rules change with the number of units, under CMHC:
- Two units: the minimum down payment is the same as a regular house, 5% on the first $500,000, and up to 100% of the gross rent can count when the lender checks if the buyer qualifies.
- Three or four units: at least 10% down, and up to 50% of the gross rent (or the net rent) can count.
Now the catch every family needs to hear early. Those friendly rules are built around the owner living there. When the Canadian aunt owns it and the student lives in it, some lenders see a family home and some see a rental, and a rental can mean a much bigger down payment. Ask the lender this before you fall for a house. Get the answer in writing.
Picture a family in Lima with a daughter starting at Brock and a cousin in Thorold who's a permanent resident. Their first plan is a condo in the daughter's name, and the ban kills it in one phone call. They switch. The parents gift the cousin a down payment, the cousin buys a side-by-side duplex, the daughter lives on one side, and a tenant rents the other for round numbers near $1,700 a month. Four years later the daughter graduates, and the family owns a building that paid a good share of its own way. Illustrative only, but every piece of it is allowed today.
One warning. Make sure the second unit is legal before you count its rent. A stove in the basement doesn't make it a unit.
My takeaway: put the right Canadian name on title, make the money a true gift, and buy a home with a second unit, so your child's four years in Ontario build family wealth instead of paying someone else's mortgage.
Hamilton or St. Catharines for a student's home?
The two markets moved in opposite directions this fall. Hamilton's average freehold price fell 10% to $659,721 in September 2026, and homes took 44 days to sell on average. St. Catharines went the other way. Its average freehold price rose 11% to $635,227, with homes selling in 33 days on average, per our St. Catharines market report for September 2026.
For a buyer, Hamilton's slower pace means more room to negotiate and more time to get the gift money and the lender lined up without panic. St. Catharines is moving faster, so a family there needs its paperwork done before the first showing, because a good duplex near Brock won't wait for a wire from Monterrey.
I'd let the school choose the city and the rent choose the house. McMaster and Mohawk point to Hamilton. Brock points to St. Catharines and Thorold. Niagara College has campuses in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Buy within an easy bus ride of the campus, and the second unit has a ready supply of tenants. If Hamilton is the city, our Hamilton investment properties page shows how we look at two to four unit homes there.
What I would do this month
First, decide whose name goes on title. Write it down. Make sure that person is a citizen or permanent resident and truly wants to own a home, because they will. It's their name, their credit and their tax return.
Second, have that person speak to a mortgage lender before anyone books a flight to look at houses. Ask three questions: will you accept a gift from outside Canada, how long must it sit in a Canadian account, and will you treat this as a home or a rental if the owner doesn't live there.
Third, start moving the money and saving every statement. Wires from Mexico, Colombia or Argentina can take longer than people expect, and the paper trail matters as much as the money.
Fourth, book a lawyer who has done gifted purchases with money from abroad, and ask them about the ban and the 25% tax for your exact family setup. A few hundred dollars of advice now is nothing next to a closing that falls apart.
Then we can look at houses. That's the fun part, and it goes much better when nobody is scared of what's in the paperwork.
Questions people ask
Can my child buy the home once they graduate and get a work permit?
Possibly. Work permit holders can qualify under the ban's exceptions, with conditions, including enough time left on the permit, and they're limited to one home. The 25% Ontario tax would still apply until they're a permanent resident, unless they qualify for an exemption, so many families wait for permanent residence before the child buys in their own name.
What happens to the foreign buyer ban after January 1, 2027?
Nobody can promise. Ottawa extended it once already, so I tell families to plan as if it could be extended again. Even if it ends, Ontario's 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax is a separate provincial rule and stays unless the province changes it.
Can the whole purchase be done while the parents stay in Mexico or South America?
Yes, for the parts the parents handle. Their job is the gift, the wire and the statements, and the lawyer can tell them how to sign the gift letter from abroad. The Canadian relative is the buyer, so they sign the offer, the mortgage and the closing documents here in Ontario.
Talk it through before you send any money
If your family is planning a home for a child studying in Hamilton or Niagara, the best time to talk is before the first dollar crosses a border. Bring the name, the budget and the school, and we'll work out whether a house with a second unit makes sense for you. Book a call with our team and ask for me.
En español
Hoy, los padres que viven en México o Sudamérica casi nunca pueden comprar una casa en Hamilton o Niagara a su nombre, por la prohibición federal hasta el 1 de enero de 2027 y el impuesto de 25% de Ontario. Lo que sí funciona es regalar el dinero a un familiar que sea ciudadano o residente permanente, y que esa persona compre y sea dueña. Si además compran una casa con dos unidades, su hijo vive en una y la renta de la otra ayuda a pagar la hipoteca. Lo primero que deben hacer este mes es decidir quién va en el título y hablar con un banco antes de buscar casas. Con gusto lo platicamos en español: escríbame o agende una llamada con Regina Marin-Suarez.