Anshu Arora LLM, MSc, PMP

Policy watchers are split on the value of B.C.’s plans for a provincial flipping tax targeting those looking to make a quick buck in the real estate market. Brendon Ogmundson, chief economist of the B.C. Real Estate Association, says the tax could end up reducing the overall number of homes on the market while only applying to a small number of properties.

Paul Kershaw, a policy professor at the University of B.C. and founder of the think tank Generation Squeeze, said while the tax may only impact a small number of properties, it sends an important message that the province is “recalibrating” around the principle of having a home first and an investment second.

“We still need to turn our attention to the here and now, looking back at how much wealth has already been accumulated, and just putting in a flipping tax is not going to address that,” he said. As of Jan. 1, 2025, homes in B.C. sold within the first year after being purchased will face a tax rate of 20 per cent of the profit, while that tax rate drops gradually to zero after two years.

Ogmundson said about 10 per cent of real estate transactions in Metro Vancouver take place within two years of a purchase, and many of those would qualify under a long list of exemptions including divorce or job relocation. He said would-be sellers who don’t qualify for an exemption but are near the end of the two-year window may be tempted to wait it out.

“It’s a very real risk that because of the way this policy is written, how it discourages potential listings, that you could end up with prices higher than they would have been otherwise,” he said. Kershaw said B.C.’s housing situation is caused by more than issues with supply and people have normalized the idea that housing prices will continue to rise.

While crediting Premier David Eby with having “better housing policy than any premier we’ve had before,” Kershaw said it’s not accurate for the premier to blame all of the province’s housing woes on abuse from investors. “What we need to be saying is, hard truth: We’ve created a lot of housing unaffordability in this province over the last many years, but we’ve also created a lot of housing wealth,” he said.

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Mass-timber construction for residential tower uses will be pushed to new limits in British Columbia, following Vancouver City Council’s approval last week of a 260 ft, 25-storey tower project. This represents an upcoming phase of Westbank’s Main Alley tech campus and the first residential addition to an otherwise job-space-focused complex of buildings. The tower, named “Prototype” or M5, a reference to this project being a taller mass timber case study and the fifth building at Main Alley, will replace the surface vehicle parking lot at 2015 Main Street — the northwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and East 4th Avenue on the easternmost edge of the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area.

This tower will carry 100% secured purpose-built rental housing for its residential uses on top of nearly 6,000 sq ft of retail/restaurant uses on the ground level. Like other taller mass timber buildings currently being built in Vancouver, this design uses cross-laminated timber (CLT) components that are pre-fabricated off-site before being delivered for assembly and installation. This project is also made visually distinct with its mass timber checkerboard facade.