The foreign buyers tax jumps from 15 to 20 per cent tomorrow and will be expanded beyond Metro Vancouver to include much of southern Vancouver Island, the central Okanagan and the Fraser Valley.
“BC’s real estate market should not be used as a stock market,” she says. “We will introduce a new annual speculation tax starting in BC’s urban areas. It’s going to tax foreign and domestic speculators. This tax will apply to property owners who don’t pay income tax here, including those who leave their units vacant.”
The speculation tax will come into effect later this year for in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Victoria-area, Nanaimo Regional District, Kelowna and West Kelowna.