For example, you can find a house that you love in the area you wanted. But it needs renovations, and you cannot afford to provide the down payment and renovate it as well. Your options are to either try to find another house or purchase the one you love and wait to gather money and renovate it. But there is a third option: you can access the CMHC Improvements program. If the house you want to buy costs $700,000, but with the improvements you are planning to make its value would go to $770,000, you would be able to borrow an additional 10% of the $660,000 ($77,000) for renovations.
There is paperwork you need to have in order to apply for this program and keep in mind that you cannot borrow money to buy appliances. This financing option refers only to renovations part of the physical structure of the house.