Real Estate Law Blog

This update is further to our first blog post from December 23, 2022 on the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act (the “Act”).

Based on significant industry feedback from across the country with respect to the unintended consequences of the nationwide prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians that came ...

Underused Housing Tax Filing Obligations

The filing deadline for the first year of the Federal Underused Housing Tax (“UHT”)^[1] is fast approaching. Any owner of residential property in Canada who is not explicitly defined as an “excluded owner” must file a return by April 30, 2023 for each residential property of the owner. The UHT is a 1% tax on the value of vacant or ...

Introduction

Earlier this year, the federal government introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act (the “Act”)^[1], which comes into force on January 1, 2023. The stated purpose of the Act is to address Canada’s housing affordability crisis.

The Prohibition

The Act will prohibit non-Canadians from purchasing ...

In an effort to slow a then-frothy residential real estate market, the Province adopted amendments to the Property Law Act on April 25, 2022 to establish a new homebuyer rescission regime in B.C. These amendments provide buyers of residential real estate with a mandatory “cooling-off period” following execution of a purchase agreement, giving them more time to ...

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has expanded the scope for constructive taking (also called de facto expropriation) claims. They have removed the requirement to show that a government has acquired a beneficial interest in the relevant land whose development rights they impair. This requirement has been replaced with the much broader category of ...

The proverbial ground is shifting beneath the feet of lenders, mortgage brokers and administrators in British Columbia with the introduction of the new Mortgage Services Act (the “MSA”) by the B.C. legislature on October 4, 2022.

Expected to come into force in late 2023, the MSA replaces the current (and arguably outdated) Mortgage Brokers Act (the “MBA”) by ...

If you are a land owner in British Columbia, you may have recently received a letter from the province’s Land Owner Transparency Registry (“LOTR”) indicating the need to file a transparency report by November 30, 2022.

Effective November 30, 2020, the British Columbia Land Owner Transparency Act (“LOTA”) came into force. LOTA is intended to increase land ...

Significant changes to Alberta’s Builders’ Lien Act came into effect this week. The major changes, introduced by Bill 37 Builders’ Lien (Prompt Payment) Amendment Act, 2020, include:

1. Renaming the Builders’ Lien Act to the Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act;
2. Setting prompt payment timelines;
3. Extending timelines for registering liens;
4. Mandatory release ...

The Alberta Land Titles Office (the “LTO”) has long been subject to registration delays, with the gap between submission of a document to the LTO and completion of its registration historically taking one to two weeks. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent hot Alberta real estate market, have resulted in the average LTO registration time increasing significantly ...

On April 7, 2022, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced the 2022 Federal Budget (the “Budget”). Included in the Budget are the following real estate related measures:

1. Two-Year Ban on Foreign Homebuyers. The Budget contemplates new rules to prohibit foreign commercial enterprises and individuals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from ...