Who B.C.’s expanded foreign-buyers taxes will affect most (hint: not the wealthy)

The new and extended property taxes in the provincial budget delivered February 20 budget by B.C.’s NDP-Green government, will have little effect on wealthy foreign buyers, according to Carrie Law, CEO of Juwai, China’s largest international property portal. “For higher-income buyers who are committed for personal or professional reasons to buying in Vancouver, the tax will not keep them from purchasing,” she told Better Dwelling. It’s more likely to change the buying behaviour of lower-income offshore buyers, Law says, adding, “It would be reasonable to expect the average price of homes that middle class buyers acquire to decrease in line with the amount of the tax increase. That would leave their total transaction cost about the same.”