In June 2019, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) made a presentation to the BC Select Standing Committee on Finance which tours the province annually asking British Columbians for ideas on how to spend the BC budget.

Since 1987, the REBGV has been making recommendations on how to make homes more affordable to this committee.

Here are our recommendations on how to spend the 2020 BC Budget.  

1. Appeal to the federal government to review the mortgage underwriting stress test. This federal rule has locked a sizeable portion of home buyers out of the market based on outdated guidelines that ignore mortgage rate changes since implementation.  
2. Ask the federal government to do away with the extension of the B-20 rule to uninsured mortgages (which have 20% or more down payments). These have an extremely low rate of default and pose little risk to the financial system.
3. Increase the First-time Home Buyers’ Program PTT exemption threshold to $750,000 from $525,000. This would minimally impact PTT revenue.
4. Increase the 1% PTT threshold to $750,000 from $200,000 for all home buyers.
5. Index the PTT thresholds using the consumer price index and make annual adjustments for the First-time Home Buyers’ Program exemption threshold and Newly Built Home Exemption threshold.