Real Estate Law Blog

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 ...

This update is further to our first blog post from December 23, 2022 on the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act (the “Act”).

Based on significant industry feedback from across the country with respect to the unintended consequences of the nationwide prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians that came ...

Introduction

Earlier this year, the federal government introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act (the “Act”)^[1], which comes into force on January 1, 2023. The stated purpose of the Act is to address Canada’s housing affordability crisis.

The Prohibition

The Act will prohibit non-Canadians from purchasing ...

Over the last few months, the Underused Housing Tax Act (the “Act”) has moved through the House of Commons and is currently in the final steps of the report stage. If the Act is ultimately brought into force, it will implement an annual tax of 1% on the vacant or underused residential real estate, directly or indirectly owned by non-Canadians.

Whom does the Underused ...

On February 16, 2017, Bill M-205 (Property Law and Land Title Amendment Act, 2017) passed first reading which, amongst other things, proposes to make amendments to the Property Law Act (British Columbia). Notably, Bill M-205 would restrict ownership of land within the Agricultural Land Reserve (the “ALR”) by foreign nationals or foreign corporations to a maximum of ...