BC's 20% Foreign Buyer Tax and New Homes in Metro Vancouver: Why We Think the Province Should Waive It

Budget 2026 proposes to let foreign buyers purchase new homes again. In Vancouver, Surrey and Langley, that change will help few families on its own, because BC charges its own 20% tax on foreign buyers and the federal budget leaves it in place. We think the province should waive the 20% on a brand new home that a family buys to live in, from the day Ottawa's exemption becomes law.

This is our opinion, and we say so. The rules below are the published rules as of November 9, 2026. Our earlier post on Budget 2026 for South Surrey and Langley builds covers what the budget proposes in full.

What the 20% adds to a new multiplex home

BC's additional property transfer tax charges a foreign national 20% of the fair market value of their share of a home. It applies in Metro Vancouver, which includes Vancouver, Surrey and Langley, and in four other regional districts: the Fraser Valley, the Capital Regional District, Central Okanagan and Nanaimo. It is paid on top of the regular property transfer tax that every buyer pays.

The tax is charged on the share registered on title. The province's own example is a buyer who registers a 70% interest and pays the tax on 70% of the home's fair market value. Here is what that means on a new strata home in a multiplex. The value is an example, not the price of any home we have built.

• A $1,300,000 home held fully by a foreign national: the 20% tax is $260,000.
• The same home held half by a parent abroad and half by a child who is a permanent resident: the tax is 20% of $650,000, or $130,000.
• The same home with the parent off title, helping with a gift toward the down payment: the 20% does not apply.

Faced with those numbers, we expect most families to keep the parent off title or skip the purchase. Either way, the federal exemption brings few new buyers to a Metro Vancouver multiplex while the 20% stays.

How few sales involve a foreign buyer

The province publishes how many home sales have a foreign buyer, each month and by region, in its property transfer tax data. In the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the share is small. The latest table has the current count.

The province does not release how much of the 20% tax it collected in most months. It holds a figure back when a small number could point to one buyer. So we cannot put a cost on a waiver. Because so few sales involve a foreign buyer, we expect the amount from new homes alone to be small.

What Ottawa left to the province

Page 203 of the Budget 2026 document gives the reason for exempting new homes: it would help by "unlocking additional investment in new housing supply." The same page says Ottawa will keep supporting measures "levied by other levels of government" that deal with speculation. We read that as Ottawa leaving BC's 20% tax alone. If the tax is going to change for new homes, the province has to decide it.

Why we think the province should waive it on new homes

We develop new homes with landowners and investors, and every one of those homes has to sell. A buyer who moves into a new home on completion is the buyer Ottawa's reason describes. A 20% tax on that buyer works against new supply.

The family case matters most to us. A parent abroad who helps a son or daughter buy a new home today is pushed to stay off title. The parent puts money in and holds no legal share of the home. If the family's plans change, the parent has no say in a home they helped pay for.

BC's own rules already treat a buyer who lives in the home differently. A confirmed BC Provincial Nominee who buys a home as their principal residence pays no 20% tax. A foreign national who becomes a permanent resident or citizen within one year of the transfer can apply for a refund, if they moved in within 92 days and lived there as their principal residence for a full year. We are asking the province to apply the same idea to new homes.

What we are asking the province to do

• Waive the 20% on a brand new home that nobody has lived in, when it is bought as a principal residence, from the day Ottawa's new-home exemption takes effect.
• At the least, waive it for families: a parent or grandparent who buys together with a child or grandchild who is a citizen or permanent resident and lives in the home.
• Keep the tax on resale homes and on homes bought to sit empty.

What to do while the rules stay the same

Nothing has changed yet. The federal exemption is a proposal with no definition of a new home and no start date, and BC's 20% applies in full in Vancouver, Surrey and Langley.

• If you are a landowner planning a multiplex, plan your sales on buyers who are citizens or permanent residents. Do not count on foreign buyers until both the federal rules and BC's tax have changed.
• If you are buying with family abroad, talk to a real estate lawyer before anyone signs. A gift toward the down payment, with the family member off title, avoids the 20% under today's rules.
• If you agree with us, write to your MLA and to BC's Minister of Finance. Name the home, the family member who would share it and who would live there.

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