The BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax: Who Declares, Who Pays, and What Changed in 2026

Every year a number of Lower Mainland owners open a tax bill for thousands of dollars on a property they never thought was taxable. The cause is almost always the same: a form that went unfilled.

This is the speculation and vacancy tax, and the way it works catches people out.

The part that catches people

The tax applies to residential property in designated taxable areas across the province. What surprises owners is that the declaration is mandatory for everyone in those areas, including people who owe nothing.

The declaration is how you claim your exemption. Filing is what keeps most owners at zero.

If you skip it, the province charges the tax at the maximum rate of 2% of your property's assessed value. On a home assessed at $1.4 million, that is $28,000. The exemption you were entitled to was still there. You simply did not claim it.

The deadlines

There are two, and they are months apart.

• March 31: the declaration is due.
• First business day in July: payment is due if any tax is owed. In 2026 that was July 2.

The province mails a declaration letter with the codes you need. Each owner on title declares separately, so a couple who own a home jointly file two declarations between them.

The rates went up in 2026

The rates changed for the 2026 tax year, and this is the change most owners have not registered.

Tax year	Foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners	Canadian citizens and permanent residents
2018	0.5%	0.5%
2019 to 2025	2%	0.5%
2026	3%	1%
2027 onward	4%	1%

Satellite families fall in the untaxed worldwide earner column, so they pay the higher rate.

For a Canadian owner with a vacant $1.2 million condo, the annual bill moved from $6,000 to $12,000 between the 2025 and 2026 tax years. The rate change alone produced that, on the same condo used the same way.

Where the tax applies

The designated taxable areas cover most of the Metro Vancouver Regional District and the Capital Regional District, plus a list of named municipalities including:

• Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission
• Squamish and Lions Bay
• Kelowna, West Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland and Penticton
• Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Coldstream and Lake Country
• Nanaimo, Lantzville, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Ladysmith and Cumberland
• Courtenay, Comox, Duncan, North Cowichan and Lake Cowichan

Some pockets are carved out. Reserve lands, treaty lands and lands of self-governing Indigenous Nations are outside the taxable areas. Islands reachable only by air or water are outside too, with Vancouver Island as the exception. The Predator Ridge resort in Vernon is specifically excluded.

The province publishes an interactive map, and that map is the answer for any address near a boundary. Boundaries cut through municipalities, so check the address itself when your lot sits near the edge of one.

The exemptions most owners use

Principal residence. You are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, a BC resident for tax purposes, and the property is where you live. This covers the majority of owners in the taxable areas.

Occupied by a tenant. A renter or a non-arm's length tenant occupies the home for at least six months in the calendar year. The conditions differ depending on whether the tenant is at arm's length from you, so a relative living there is assessed differently from a tenant on a lease.

The year you bought it. You are exempt for the year you purchased, if you paid property transfer tax or qualified for an exemption from it, such as the first time home buyers' program.

The year you inherited it. Same treatment, for the year the property legally passed to you.

Each of these still requires a declaration. You claim the exemption inside the filing, and the province applies it once you do.

Where this bites in a real transaction

Three situations produce most of the surprise bills.

You bought a place for a child at university. It sits empty over the summer. If occupancy falls under six months, the exemption fails and the bill arrives.

You moved for work and kept the condo. You are no longer a BC resident for tax purposes, the property is no longer your principal residence, and you did not rent it out because you expected to come back within the year.

You are between tenants during a renovation. The unit was occupied for four months and the exemption needs six. The renovation exemption is a separate provision with its own tests, and assuming the principal residence rules cover an empty unit is how this one goes wrong.

Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax is a second, separate tax

Owners mix these two up constantly. They are two taxes with two declarations.

The speculation and vacancy tax is provincial and applies across dozens of municipalities. Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax is municipal and applies only inside the City of Vancouver, with its own rate, its own deadline and its own form.

An owner of a vacant home in Vancouver can owe both. Declaring for one does nothing for the other.

What to do before you buy

If you are buying a second property, a rental, or a home you will not occupy straight away, work out your speculation and vacancy tax position before you write the offer rather than after.

Ask three questions:

1. Is the address inside a designated taxable area? Check the province's map, not the municipal name.
2. Which exemption will I claim in year one, and in year two?
3. If the exemption fails, what is 1% of the assessed value?

That third number is the one to hold in mind. It is an annual cost that continues for as long as the situation does, and it is charged on the assessed value, so an empty property that earns you nothing is taxed at the same rate as one that earns well.

For buyers weighing a rental, this figure belongs in the same column as strata fees and property tax when you work out what the place actually costs to hold.

What this comes down to

• Every owner in a designated taxable area declares by March 31, including owners who owe nothing.
• Skipping the declaration means the tax at 2% of assessed value, regardless of the exemption you were entitled to.
• For 2026 the rates are 1% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, 3% for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners, both up from 2025.
• The tenant exemption needs at least six months of occupancy in the calendar year.
• Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax is a separate tax with a separate declaration.
• Contact our team before you buy a property you will not live in, or browse listings with the holding cost already worked out.

Plan your next step

Read the home-buying guide to organise your questions before an offer, and comparing homes to weigh two properties with the annual costs included rather than left out.