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 ...

When are parties permitted to allocate the fair market value for real property for the purpose of remitting property transfer tax? Here is a refresher on the principles of fair market value (FMV) in real property transactions following a recent BC Supreme Court case in which the parties were entitled to allocate FMV to a property at less than the assessed value.

1184369 B.C ...

Under the Property Transfer Tax Act, RSBC 1996, c 378, (the “Act”), property transfer tax (“PTT”) would, generally speaking, be imposed on a lease with a term of 30 years or more, or a lease in conjunction with lease modification agreements that would result in a cumulative term of 30 years or more, would be subject to PTT under the Act. In the recent decision of M&N ...

On February 18, 2020, the government of B.C. introduced its 2020 provincial budget. Included in the budget is a new exemption from the additional property transfer tax, commonly known as the “foreign buyers’ tax”, which will be available for qualifying Canadian-controlled limited partnerships. Though the specific language of the exemption will not be confirmed ...

This is the first in a series of articles to be published by Lawson Lundell on the subject of the BC Government’s Land Owner Transparency Act (British Columbia) (“LOTA”).

In 2018, the B.C. government released a White Paper on LOTA which set out a draft legislative framework for the introduction of a publicly accessible registry (the “Registry”) for the disclosure ...

On February 20, 2018, the Hon. Carole James, Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier, introduced the 2018 British Columbia Provincial Budget. Included in the Budget was the NDP’s 30-point plan for housing affordability in British Columbia.

Included in this 30-point plan are the following measures:

1. New Speculation Tax.  In Fall of 2018, the Province will introduce a new ...

The provincial government announced earlier today, July 25, 2016, that foreign buyers of residential real estate in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (excluding Tsawwassen First Nation lands) will be subject to an additional property transfer tax (The “Additional PTT”) of 15% of the fair market value of a foreign entity's proportionate share of property. For ...

The BC 2016/17 Budget, released on February 16, 2016, implemented changes to the Property Transfer Tax Act and to the Land Title Act in the form of increased tax rates, citizenship disclosure requirements and a new PTT exemption.  The Budget did not change the current PTT treatment of unregistered beneficial conveyances, but it did create a new disclosure requirement ...