$250 a week can land some buyers a new condo in southern Ontario

Although condos are, generally speaking, the most affordable housing type in Ontario (a May report from the Cornerstone Association of Realtors indicates that the average sales price of a condo in Hamilton was $394,372 in June), the need for a hefty upfront payment is still daunting for prospective buyers who grapple wth high prices in other areas. 

For people paying significant deposits on pre- or under-construction condos, the financial hits can be challenging–even when deposit payments are broken into chunks over the course of the building phase. 

To mitigate the strain and help some people ease into homeownership, a new development in Hamilton is allowing buyers to pay their deposits in installments starting at about $250 per week. 

“Overall, we find that homeownership today has become more difficult for people who are trying to [buy],” Stefano Guglietti, vice president of high-rise sales at Rosehaven Homes, tells INsauga.com.  

“It’s not the same as previous generations that were able to save money for a down payment. Things are more expensive, and just the way that things are, coming up with a deposit is not easy.” 

Guglietti is right that financial pressures, particularly for younger buyers, are pronounced. 

While many parts of Canada have become more costly to live in, lower- and middle-income earners and households in Ontario are feeling particularly squeezed–especially in the province’s biggest cities. 

The cost of living in the province, and particularly in the GTA, is high. Spergel, a company specializing in debt relief and bankruptcy, found that the average cost of living in Ontario was $3,800-$4,300 per month for a single person in 2025, while the cost for a family of four was about $6,800- $7,800 per month. 

The cost of living, the company says, includes housing, transportation, groceries, utilities, health care, and insurance.  

To offer more buyers a chance to enter the market, Rosehaven Homes, an Ontario developer, launched an extended deposit program for the upcoming Rebecca Residences project. The building, taking shape in downtown Hamilton along the revitalized John Rebecca Park corridor, will boast 23 storeys and 393 units. Construction is slated to kick off this fall, with a projected completion date of 2030. 

Prices start in the $300,000s. 

Through Rosehaven’s initiative, purchasers pay a weekly deposit of $250 (the cost is determined by unit size) over 48 months. 

This, the company says, offers buyers the chance to pay over time, rather than paying a large upfront deposit at other pre-construction properties.

Guglietti says Rosehaven, a family business, was inspired to launch the program after watching relatives struggle to purchase their first homes. 

“It takes time to save that money, and it often feels like this big hit where we’d have these large deposits that become due as the project is going through construction. Every once in a while, you think, “Ah, I paid my five per cent deposit. I’m good.” And then a year comes down the road, things have happened within that year, and now there’s another five per cent that’s due. It can be a big hit and a big shock,” he says. 

The company also said that the rollout of Ontario’s new limited-time housing HST rebate program has allowed it to reduce its purchase prices even further. The tax break is available from April 1, 2026, to March 1, 2027, and removes the full 13 percent HST on new-construction homes priced up to $1 million.  

“We are able to remove an average of approximately $40,000 from the price on select units,” Guglietti said in a news release. 

Guglietti tells INsauga.com that the program, which applies only to the Rebecca Residences as of publication time, aims to make homeownership more attainable for first-time buyers, and it’s different from comparable initiatives such as extended deposit or rent-to-own structures. The program is rare because the structure isn’t always popular with lending institutions.  

“When it comes to the builder side for financing a project, usually the bank wants to see a certain deposit from the homebuyer in place before they give their financing and usually they want 10 per cent,” he explains. 

“So what Rosehaven has decided to do is go ahead and put our foot forward here and say we’re going to put up our own equity for those people to help people get to the path of homeownership. We’re going to do this program a little bit differently and a little bit less conventionally than we have in the past with how we finance these projects,” he says. 

Guglietti says that so far, the feedback has been positive, especially because it allows renters to set aside smaller amounts of cash on a week-by-week basis. 

“Let’s say they’re people who are renting in Downtown Hamilton or in other areas and they’re paying their rent per month. Now they’re able to take some money that they’ve saved on the side, and they’re slowly building their way towards homeownership in the future,” he says. 

“So we found that this stretch deposit resonates very well and has worked well for people.” 

Bishoy Basily, a broker relations manager at in2ition (the sales team at the Rebecca Residences), also says clients are intrigued. 

“My clients have been searching for an investment property for some time. Given the current market, it was important to secure the right project — strong incentives, a solid layout mix, and a reputable builder behind it,” Basily said in an email to INsauga.com. 

“Navigation was smooth with no issues. [It’s] attractive for buyers to own a property without large deposit payments.” 

As for whether Rosehaven plans to launch the program at other builds, Guglietti says he sees a shift underway that could make stretched-deposit systems more widespread not just in Rosehaven’s projects but in other builds by other developers. 

“In the past we’ve had a 20 per cent deposit that gets paid in two years. It’s a big number for people. I don’t think that’s going to be the way of the future. In the high-rise sector, I definitely think that this is something that we’ll see implemented more and more, and we would try this again on our future sites.”

Renderings courtesy of Rosehaven