Property Transfer Tax – First Time Home Buyer’s Program

By Kelvin Scheuer

British Columbia has a tax on the transfer of real property, called Property Transfer Tax. The tax is based on the fair market value of the real property. The rate of tax is 1% of the first $200,000, and 2% on the balance over $200,000.

However, first-time home buyers who qualify for the First Time Home Buyers’ Program are exempt from payment of the Property Transfer Tax.  Typically, to qualify for the exemption, ALL the following conditions must be met:

The Buyer:

  • You must have lived in BC for 1 full year prior to the purchase date, or have filed 2 income tax returns as a BC resident within the last 6 taxation years.
  • You must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident. (If you obtain this status within one year after the purchase date, you can apply for a refund).
  • You must have never owned a registered interest in real property anywhere in the world that was your principal residence.
  • You must occupy the real property as your principal residence within 92 days of the purchase date.
  • You must continue to reside in the real property for 1 full year after the purchase date. (If you move out sooner, you may have to pay some of the tax).
  • You must have never received a first time home buyers’ exemption or refund.

The Property:

  • It must have a fair market value of no more than $500,000.  If it is vacant land, the value of the land plus total construction costs must be less than $500,000).
  • It must be classified as residential.
  • It must not exceed 0.5 hectares (1.24 acres) in size.

If the buyer fully qualifies but property does not fully meet all of these conditions, a partial exemption from the tax may still be available.

If you have questions about the First Time Home Buyers’ Program, or about buying or selling real property in BC generally, please contact us.

Testimonials

I just wanted to extend my thanks for your absolutely first class service. When we were purchasing our home, as you know, we had many obstacles to overcome and actually thought in the last two days that our deal might not go through. It was a very stressful time in our lives and I want you to know that we’ll always appreciate your calm, caring, professional manner and how you made us feel at ease and that it would all work out because we had you representing us.

You and the rest of your team are awesome, and this is why I will continue to refer you to anyone I know who needs legal representation. As a realtor being able to refer my clients to someone who I know without a doubt will provide them with the best legal advice and service adds to my confidence in terms of the overall service I am providing.

You have, in essence become a key element of my business team and I look forward to building on what is already a successful business relationship.”

M.D.

Over the past year Lianne Macdonald has provided excellent legal advice to my real estate clients. I am always impressed with the quality of her services, as well as the care shown by Lianne and her staff. Lianne is always available if I have any questions or concerns. Her sound advice and legal counsel has greatly helped me in difficult and unusual situations. Lianne Macdonald is a proactive lawyer, an honest and caring person and a trusted friend. Without hesitation, I would recommend Lianne’s services to others, and will continue to use her service where they pertain.

C.W.

Lianne, thank you so much for your excellent work on our conveyance. Your extra work helped save us thousands of dollars.

Dear Mr. Elgersma, I want to thank you and your team for all your help during my recent sale in Victoria. My lawyer here in Ontario was very impressed by your fee and said it was a very good deal in his experience. Thank you very much.

C.G.

I recently had the experience of selling my condo. As I am not in the habit of frequently buying and selling my home I find the whole process a bit unnerving. To add to my unfamiliarity with home transactions, I was due to be out of the country on the completion date of my sale. Needless to say this was somewhat worrisome to me.

I hired Del to handle the legal transaction of my sale. What a great decision this turned out to be. Del and I got together a week prior to my trip and completed the necessary paperwork. There are a lot of papers to sign when selling a home and Del took the time to explain each document to me and answered all the questions I had. He then assured me that he had everything he needed in order to handle the transaction in my absence.

Del had explained everything so clearly to me and made me feel so at ease about the process that I felt completely comfortable leaving my legal interests in his hands while I was off vacationing. This made quite an impression on me as I have never felt comfortable leaving my fate in the hands of others, especially the likes of lawyers!

Previously I would have worried about everything going smoothly on the actual day of my home sale but to my delight and surprise on the completion date of this sale I laid in my hammock and drank champagne in the sunshine celebrating with complete confidence that the transaction would be handled just fine. I returned home only to have my suspicions confirmed . . .yes, in my absence, money had been quietly deposited to my account!

Thank you Del for allowing me to let go of the stress and worry around this large, important and infrequent type of event in my life.

A.W.