So you’ve decided to live the good life on Canada’s West Coast and move to Beautiful British Columbia. If you’re moving from out of province you’ll want to stay tuned as I’m going to cover some of the things you’ll encounter that you might not expect!
The first thing on everyone’s mind of course is home prices. When looking at big cities, Toronto’s home prices are actually higher than Vancouver and Vancouver Island. BC does still have some of the most expensive real estate in the country which you will feel the most coming from a province like Alberta with much more affordable housing costs. So, before you get swept away by the idea of moving to the west coast be prepared so you don’t have sticker shock.
Another thing someone moving from Alberta might find alarming is what we in BC call Property Transfer Tax. In Ontario, this is called Land Transfer Tax and is broken down as follows:
0.5% on amounts up to and including $55,000.
1.0% on amounts exceeding $55,000, up to and including $250,000.
1.5% on amounts exceeding $250,000, up to and including $400,000.
2.0% on amounts exceeding $400,000.
If you’re purchasing in the city of Toronto, that will be charged again at
0.5% of total property value up to and including $55,000.00
1% of total property value over $55,000.01 to $400,000.00
2% of total property value over $400,000.00
In BC, this is called property transfer tax and like in Ontario is the responsibility of the buyer to pay, charged at completion when the title is transfered. The property transfer tax rate in BC is as follows:
1% of the fair market value up to and including $200,000
2% of the fair market value greater than $200,000 and up to and including $2,000,000
3% of the fair market value greater than $2,000,000
If you are a first-time home buyer in BC and purchasing a home as your primary residence for under $500K you could qualify to be exempt or partially exempt from paying this amount but make sure to check with your mortgage broker and realtor.
So as mentioned before, if you’re moving from Alberta you will have to factor this into your closing costs as Alberta only has The Land Transfer Registration Fee paid which costs:
a base of $50 and an additional $2 for every $5000 of property value and the Mortgage Registration Fee also costs a base of $50 and an additional $1.5 but for the mortgage amount.
So let’s break that down for a moment.
On the purchase of a $600,000 home in Ontario, your land transfer tax will be $8475, and an additional $8475 if buying in the city of Toronto. So you could be paying as much as $16,950
In BC on a $600,000 purchase you’re looking at $10K in Property Transfer Tax.
And in Alberta your Land Transfer tax on a $600,000 home with a $30K mortgage down payment is only $511.
Dual Agency
Dual agency is when a real estate agent can act both as the buying and selling agent for the same property. As of June 2018, BC no longer allows for dual agency unless under very narrow and strict exceptions. The reasoning is the difficulty of acting in both parties' best interests when acting for both sides. In a real estate transaction, the client (you) enters into Agency with the Realtor's brokerage and the brokerage assigns the realtor as the designated agent. So you can still have two agents in the same office take part in the same transaction.
BC is the only province to have banned dual agency and all other provinces allow it although most require written consent.
Recission Period
Something that came into effect on January 1st, 2023 was the BC rescission or “cooling-off” period, where home buyers have up to 3 business days not including weekends and holidays to rescind their offer for any reason but must pay 0.25% of the purchase price. and cannot be waved. This came in at a time when the market was crazy and people were making subject-free offers so the government added this layer of consumer protection. Make sure you ask your realtor everything you need to know when writing up an offer on a home and how this works!
