Frankly Speaking

The July 25 introduction of a 15 per cent property purchase tax on foreign buyers by the provincial government surprised many observers, and shocked the real estate industry. In particular, foreign buyers with transactions in progress were caught in a dilemma. If they were able to move the completion date up, they could avoid the tax. Some did so. Others walked away from signed contracts, forfeiting deposits which in some cases were substantially lower than the tax bill would have been. Philip Dumoulin of Sotheby’s International Realty in South Surrey said one realtor lost three buyers and a fourth asked for a referral to Toronto, planning to buy there instead of in the Greater Vancouver area. Foreign buyers have had less direct impact in Surrey than in some other parts of Greater Vancouver, such as the City of Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and areas of the North Shore. However, there have been a significant number of such buyers in South Surrey and White Rock, and it is like...

Premier Christy Clark announced on July 25 that a 15 per cent property purchase tax will be applied to all residential property purchases by foreigners, including trusts and corporations. About six months ago, I received a call from a polling firm which was clearly working for the BC Liberals. The caller asked a number of very specific questions, and one was what issues I was most concerned about. The first thing I mentioned was the high cost of housing, and how soaring real estate prices have a devastating effect on people who are not in the marketplace. That includes people who want to buy, people moving into the area from elsewhere and renters. At that time, the provincial government had done absolutely nothing on that particular file, and in fact was all but asking investors to bring their money to B.C. and keep the real estate boom going. Not long after that call, The Globe and Mail published several crucial stories about what was actually happening in the real estate mar...

There will be many more scenes like this in Willoughby in the coming years, with the provincial government's removal of the property purchase tax on new homes values at $750,000 or less. The provincial budget will have a significant effect on Langley, particularly Willoughby. That’s because of how the province has chosen to react to the growing furore over housing unaffordability. It is not boosting the level at which the property purchase tax stays at one per cent ($200,000) and it is not boosting the exemption for first-time buyers (it only applies to property valued at a maximum $475,000). Instead, it is eliminating property purchase tax entirely on new homes valued at $750,000 or less. To make up for the income loss (and that’s what the government really cares about), it will  boost the property purchase tax to three per cent on properties valued at $2 million or more. While this boost in taxes on the wealthy is welcome and long overdue, the government’...