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First Time Home Buyers' PTT Exemption

Also known as: FTHB exemption · FTHB · First Time Home Buyer exemption

A BC Property Transfer Tax exemption for qualifying first-time home buyers, available for homes up to $835,000 fair market value: full exemption (no PTT) to $500,000, $8,000 off from $500,000 to $835,000, linear phase-out $835,000–$860,000.

The First Time Home Buyers' (FTHB) exemption was raised April 1, 2024: it is available for fair market values at or under $835,000, with the exemption equal to the PTT on the first $500,000 of FMV. A home at or under $500,000 pays no general PTT; a home from $500,000 to $835,000 gets $8,000 off. Above $835,000 the exemption phases out linearly, reaching $0 at $860,000. Buyers at or above $860,000 receive no exemption.

To qualify, the buyer must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, must occupy the home as their principal residence within 92 days of registration and remain for at least 1 year, and must never have held a registered interest in a principal residence anywhere in the world. The property has two conditions of its own for the full exemption: it must be 0.5 hectares (1.24 acres) or smaller, and it must carry only residential improvements.

A larger parcel or another building does not disqualify the buyer; it reduces the exemption to a partial one. Foreign nationals are not eligible. The exemption is mutually exclusive with the Newly Built Home Exemption.

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Property Transfer Tax — A provincial tax payable to the Province of British Columbia on the registered fair market value of any residential property title transfer, calculated using marginal-rate brackets.
Newly Built Home PTT Exemption — A BC Property Transfer Tax exemption for a newly built home worth $1,100,000 or less, phasing out in a straight line to $1,150,000.
GST New Housing Rebate (BC) — A federal rebate on the 5% goods and services tax charged on a new home, and since 2026 there are two of them.
Closing Day (Completion) — Closing day, or completion, is when the buyer's lawyer registers the title transfer at the BC Land Title Office and the money reaches the seller.

@misc{bronsonjob-bc_ptt_fthb_exemption,
  author       = {Job, Bronson},
  title        = {{BC First Time Home Buyer PTT exemption}},
  howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
  year         = {2024},
  url          = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.ptt.fthb_exemption},
  urldate      = {2026-11-06},
  note         = {Fact ID: bc.ptt.fthb_exemption, version 4.}
}

APA — Press, journalism

Job, B. (2024). BC First Time Home Buyer PTT exemption. *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-11-06, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.ptt.fthb_exemption

Plain link — Slack, email, Twitter

BC First Time Home Buyer PTT exemption — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-11-06). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.ptt.fthb_exemption

Fact id: bc.ptt.fthb_exemption · v4 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/bc.ptt.fthb_exemption.json

License: This definition is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "First Time Home Buyers' PTT Exemption", BC Real Estate Glossary by Bronson Job, https://www.bronsonjob.com/glossary/first-time-home-buyer-exemption.

Bronson Job PREC, REALTOR® at Momentum Realty Inc.. GVR Member #6015742 · FVREB Member #FJOBBR

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