Last Date Modified Monday, March 19, 2018

1  The new luxury home school tax won’t apply to rental apartment buildings.

To fund schools province-wide, the government implemented a special school tax on luxury homes valued at $3 million or more. Housing Minister Selina Robinson has confirmed this tax won’t apply to residential rental apartment buildings, which it defines as properties with four or more rental units. This school tax, commencing in 2019, will be applied to homes at a rate of:

  • 0.2% on values from $3 to $4 million; and
  • 0.4% on values above $4 million.

This works out to:

  • $2,000 for the $1 million in value from $3 million to $4 million; and
  • $4,000 per every million dollar in value above $4 million.

Minister Robinson confirmed the exemption after the Goodmans − real estate analysts specializing in residential apartment buildings − sent the minister information showing that an existing landlord with a 1960s rental building in Vancouver with 27 suites, assessed at $12 million would have been taxed an additional, annual payment of approximately $40,000 or $123 per month per suite.

2  The foreign buyer tax, which rose to 20% from 15%, applies to homes and rental apartment buildings of any size.

3  The new speculation tax is similar to Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax and applies to foreign and domestic speculators in BC. Homes not owner-occupied or rented long-term and households with high worldwide income that pay little income tax in BC will pay the tax. The new tax will apply to properties in Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital and Nanaimo Regional Districts, and in the municipalities of Kelowna and West Kelowna. In 2018, the properties will be taxed at a rate of $5 per $1,000 of assessed value. In 2019 the tax rate will increase to $20 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Qualifying long-term rental properties will be exempt.

Property owners in Vancouver already paying the Empty Homes Tax will also pay this new speculation tax. Any taxes levied by municipalities are separate from the provincial speculation tax.