Real Estate Law Blog

On March 7, 2025, the British Columbia Court of Appeal released its decision to uphold the ruling of the lower court. In this unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal agreed with both the Minister of Finance and the Supreme Court of British Columbia on the interpretation of “control” in the B.C. Property Transfer Tax Act, finding that the owner of the property in question ...

Recent unexplained wealth orders offer another good reason to keep proper documentation that explains the source of money and reasons for its transfer.

The introduction of unexplained wealth orders in British Columbia has given the government the power, where the province has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person or company, or their affiliate, is involved in ...

The average permitted residential rent increase the past 10 years in British Columbia hovered around 2.7%. Such increases are prescribed under the Residential Tenancy Act (the “Act”)^[1] and the Residential Tenancy Regulation (the “Regulation”).^[2] In a rare Residential Tenancy Branch (“RTB”) decision^[3] that was widely reported by the news media last ...

On October 24, 2023, the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued a decision finding that additional property transfer taxes of $6,000,000 were payable on a residential property. Both the registered and beneficial owners of the property in question were British Columbia companies and the individuals at the top of the structure were Canadian permanent residents. The ...