For most buyers reading this, neither will ever be payable, because both are aimed at homes that nobody lives in. What does apply to almost everyone is the declaration. Both taxes require you to declare each year, and failing to declare is treated as though the home were empty.
The short version
- The speculation and vacancy tax rate for 2026 is 1 per cent for Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are not untaxed worldwide earners, and 3 per cent for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners.
- Those 2026 rates are higher than the 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent that applied from 2019 to 2025.
- Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax was 3 per cent of assessed taxable value for homes empty in the 2025 reference year.
- Both taxes require an annual declaration, and not declaring is treated as though the home were vacant.
- A home you live in as your principal residence is the ordinary case for exemption, and you still have to declare it.
The provincial speculation and vacancy tax
The speculation and vacancy tax is an annual provincial tax that applies in designated areas of British Columbia, including much of Greater Vancouver. It is charged based on how the property is used, the owner's residency status, and where the owner earns and reports income.
For 2026 the Province sets the rate at 1 per cent of assessed value for Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are not untaxed worldwide earners, and 3 per cent for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners. Those figures are higher than the rates that applied from 2019 to 2025, which were 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.
Every owner of residential property in a designated area has to complete a declaration each year, whether or not any tax is payable. That is the part that catches people. The tax itself is aimed at empty homes, and the declaration is aimed at everybody.
| Tax year | Canadian citizens and permanent residents | Foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| 2019 to 2025 | 0.5% | 2% |
| 2026 | 1% | 3% |
Source: Province of British Columbia, speculation and vacancy tax rates, accessed 29 August 2026. Rates apply to assessed value, and the categories carry specific statutory definitions.
Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax
The City of Vancouver charges its own tax on homes within the city that are left empty, and it is separate from the provincial tax. Properties deemed or declared empty for the 2025 reference year were subject to a tax of 3 per cent of the property's 2025 assessed taxable value.
The declaration for the 2025 tax year was due on 3 February 2026. If an owner fails to declare by the deadline the property is deemed vacant and the tax applies, along with a bylaw ticket.
So a Vancouver owner has two declarations to make each year, one provincial and one municipal, on different schedules with different forms. Neither takes long. Both matter, because the penalty for silence is the tax itself.
Burnaby, and the other municipalities in Greater Vancouver, do not currently run an equivalent of Vancouver's own tax, so an owner outside the city has the provincial declaration to make and not the municipal one. That is worth confirming for the specific city you are buying in rather than assuming, because municipal measures of this kind can be introduced from one year to the next.
Who actually ends up paying
In the ordinary case, a household that buys a multiplex home and lives in it pays neither tax. Both are structured so that a principal residence is not the target.
The situations where this becomes relevant to a normal buyer are worth knowing. A home bought before you can move into it, for example while you finish a lease or sell another home. A home left empty during a long absence. A home bought for a family member who has not moved in yet. In each case, look at the specific exemptions rather than assuming, and get advice if the situation is unusual.
The pre-sale timing question comes up often for our buyers. If completion happens months before you can move in, ask your lawyer how both taxes treat that period, and make the declarations on time regardless. A declaration filed correctly on a home that turns out to be exempt costs nothing. A declaration not filed at all costs the full tax.
Practical steps for a new owner
Put both declaration deadlines in your calendar the week you take possession, and set the reminder for a fortnight before each one. The declarations arrive by post or email, and post goes astray in the first year of a new address more often than at any other time.
Keep evidence of occupancy from the start: utility accounts in your name, your address on your identification, insurance in your name at that address. If a declaration is ever questioned, that is the material that settles it quickly.
If you buy with family and one household moves in later than the other, deal with the declarations for both homes rather than assuming the arrangement is obvious to the authorities. Each home is separately titled and separately assessed, so each carries its own declaration obligations.
And if anything about your situation is unusual, take advice rather than reading a summary. This page is a map of what exists, and neither of these taxes is simple enough for a guide to answer your specific case.
One last practical note. Both declarations ask about the previous year rather than the coming one, so the first declaration you make as a new owner may cover a period when somebody else owned the home for part of it. Have your completion date and your possession date to hand when you sit down to complete them, since those two dates answer most of the questions the forms actually ask.
And if you sell, remember that the obligation follows the year rather than the ownership. A home you owned for part of a reference year still has to be accounted for in that year's declaration, which is a detail that catches people who assume the responsibility ends the day they hand over the keys.
If you are unsure whether either tax could apply to your situation, the cheapest possible answer is to ask your lawyer at the point of purchase, while they already have your file open. A question asked then costs a few minutes of somebody's time. The same question asked after a tax has been assessed costs considerably more, and by then the options are narrower.
The broader point is that both of these taxes are administrative for most owners and expensive for anybody who ignores the paperwork. Two declarations a year, filed on time, is the whole of the obligation for a household living in its own home. Treat the deadlines as seriously as you would a mortgage payment and neither tax will ever be your problem.
It is also worth knowing that both authorities publish their rules in full, in plain language, on their own websites, and both update them from year to year. We have linked the two pages at the bottom of this one. Before you rely on any figure here, or on any figure elsewhere, open those two pages and check the year they apply to. That is the whole of the diligence required, and it takes about five minutes.
We would rather send you to the source than have you rely on us, and that applies to every figure on this site. Rates change, thresholds move, and a page written today is a snapshot. What does not change is where to look, which is why every number in this hub carries the name of the authority that publishes it and the date we read it.
If your circumstances are at all out of the ordinary, and particularly if a home will stand empty for any length of time, treat this page as the map rather than the answer and speak to your lawyer or an accountant. Both taxes have detailed exemption rules, and the right answer for your situation is worth the price of asking.
Questions buyers ask
More in Cost of Owning
Also worth reading
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page comes from the body that issues it. Rules and rates change, so each entry says when we checked it.
- Speculation and vacancy tax rates. Province of British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- Empty Homes Tax. City of Vancouver. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- BC Assessment. BC Assessment Authority. Accessed 29 August 2026.
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