BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax
Also known as: SVT · BC SVT · Speculation Tax
An annual BC tax on homes in specified urban areas that are neither a principal residence nor rented for at least six months of the year. For 2026 it is 1.0% of assessed value for Canadian citizens and permanent residents and 3.0% for foreign owners and satellite families, rising to 4.0% in 2027. A BC resident then subtracts a credit worth up to $4,000, which foreign owners do not receive.
The BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT) applies to residential properties in specified urban areas that are not used as a principal residence and not rented for at least 6 months in a calendar year. Every residential property owner in a specified area must file an annual declaration by March 31 of the following year, even if they qualify for an exemption — failure to declare results in the maximum tax being assessed.
For the 2026 tax year, with declarations due March 31, 2027, the rate doubled from its 2019 to 2025 level: 1.0% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and 3.0% for foreign owners and "satellite families", meaning households that report most of their worldwide income outside Canada. Budget 2026 raises the foreign and untaxed-worldwide-earner rate again to 4.0% for the 2027 tax year, so an owner deciding whether to keep a property vacant is deciding against the 2027 rate, not this one.
The rate is not the whole bill. A BC resident who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and not an untaxed worldwide earner, then subtracts a non-refundable credit that Budget 2025 raised from $2,000 to $4,000 for 2026 onward. It is prorated by percentage interest, so a quarter owner gets a quarter of it.
Because $4,000 is exactly 1% of $400,000, a sole resident owner pays nothing at an assessed value of $400,000 or below. That is an artefact of the credit rather than an exemption threshold, and foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners receive no credit at all. Specified areas include Metro Vancouver, the Capital Regional District and several other urban centres; the boundary list is updated periodically by regulation.
Work it out with your own numbers
Speculation and Vacancy Tax calculatorRelated terms
- 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.
- BC Foreign Buyer Additional PTT — A 20% additional property transfer tax on residential purchases by foreign nationals, foreign corporations and taxable trustees.
- Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act — BC legislation limiting short-term rentals to the home the operator actually lives in, plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling on the same lot.
- BC Home Flipping Tax — A BC tax on the profit when you sell a home you have owned less than 730 days.
See also
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@misc{bronsonjob-bc_svt_rates_2026,
author = {Job, Bronson},
title = {{BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates and credit (2026 tax year)}},
howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.svt.rates_2026},
urldate = {2026-08-08},
note = {Fact ID: bc.svt.rates_2026, version 4.}
}Job, B. (2026). BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates and credit (2026 tax year). *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-08-08, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.svt.rates_2026
BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates and credit (2026 tax year) — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-08-08). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#bc.svt.rates_2026
Fact id: bc.svt.rates_2026 · v4 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/bc.svt.rates_2026.json
Verified sources (5)· re-verified 2026-08-08Click to expand
Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-08-08Speculation and Vacancy Tax — tax rateshttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/speculation-vacancy-tax/how-tax-works/tax-rates
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-08-08Speculation and Vacancy Tax credit for B.C. residentshttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/speculation-vacancy-tax/tax-credits/bc-residents
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-08-08Taxable areas for the Speculation and Vacancy Taxhttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/speculation-vacancy-tax/how-tax-works/taxable-areas
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-08-08Updates to Speculation and Vacancy Tax — 2027 rate increasehttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/tax-updates/updates-taxes-tax-credits/speculation-and-vacancy-tax-updates
- BC Governmentretrieved 2026-08-08Budget 2025 tax changes — speculation and vacancy tax rates double and the resident credit rises to $4,000https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/tax-updates/budget-changes/2025-budget-tax-changes
bc.svt.rates_2026 · v4View in Codex →License: This definition is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax", BC Real Estate Glossary by Bronson Job, https://www.bronsonjob.com/glossary/speculation-vacancy-tax.
