Most of the buyers we speak to have bought a home before, but never this way. The questions are always the same. How much do I have to put down, and when. What happens to that money. What if the home is late. What do I actually pay on the day I get the keys. What if I change my mind.
This guide answers those questions one at a time. Every rule, threshold and dollar figure on these pages comes from the body that issues it, with the date we checked it, so you can go and read the original yourself.
The short version
- In a building of 5 or more strata homes, you can cancel a pre-sale purchase for any reason within 7 days, under section 21 of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act. In a duplex, triplex or fourplex sold as strata homes, section 42 of the Property Law Act gives you 3 business days, at a cost of 0.25% of the price. The 7 days run from the later of the date you signed or the date you gave written confirmation that you had a chance to read the disclosure statement.
- In a building of 5 or more strata homes, your deposit goes into trust first. Section 18 of the same Act requires it to be held promptly by a brokerage, lawyer, notary public or other prescribed person, in a trust account at a savings institution in British Columbia. Under section 19 the seller may take it out and use it for the project only after it signs a deposit protection contract with an insurer and gives you notice.
- Every new home built by a Licensed Residential Builder in BC carries warranty insurance: 2 years on materials and labour, 5 years on the building envelope, and 10 years on the structure, according to BC Housing.
- A first-time buyer can now get up to $50,000 of GST back on a new home priced at or below $1 million, and a reduced amount up to $1.5 million, under the first-time home buyers' GST/HST rebate that received royal assent in March 2026.
- Property transfer tax is fully waived on a newly built home up to $1,100,000 in value, with a partial break up to $1,150,000, if you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and you live in it.
What makes a pre-sale different from any other purchase
In a normal purchase you look at a finished home, you make an offer, and a few weeks later it is yours. In a pre-sale you are agreeing to buy something you cannot walk through, on a completion date that is often a year or two away and is not yet fixed. That gap is the reason the province regulates these sales separately.
In a building of 5 or more strata homes, the core document is the disclosure statement. Under section 14 of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act, the seller must file one before marketing the homes, and it must plainly disclose all material facts. Under section 15, they cannot sign a purchase agreement with you until they have given you a copy and you have confirmed in writing that you had a reasonable chance to read it. If something material changes later, section 16 requires a new statement or an amendment that clearly identifies and corrects the problem. A duplex, triplex or fourplex sold as 4 or fewer strata homes has no disclosure statement, so there the purchase agreement is the document to read.
Read that document. It is long and it is dull, and it is also the only place where the things that will annoy you in five years are written down: which parts of the building you share, what the seller is allowed to change without asking you, and what the schedule actually says.
The money, in the order you will part with it
Pre-sale money moves in stages, and the stages are far apart. The deposit comes first and is usually paid in instalments over the months after you sign. The mortgage does not start until near the end, because a lender will not fund a home that does not exist yet. The rest of the money, along with the taxes and legal fees, all lands on completion day.
One practical consequence catches people out. The mortgage rate you were quoted when you signed is not the rate you get. Your lender assesses you again close to completion, on the income and the rates in effect then, not the ones from two years earlier.
| Stage | Roughly when | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| First deposit | At signing, or within days | Held in trust, or used by the seller under a deposit protection contract |
| Later deposit instalments | Set dates in your contract, often every few months | Same rules as the first deposit |
| Mortgage approval | Close to completion | Assessed on your income and rates at that time |
| Balance of the price | Completion day | Paid by your lawyer or notary from your mortgage and savings |
| Taxes and closing costs | Completion day | Property transfer tax, GST where it applies, legal fees, adjustments |
Deposit timing is set by your own contract and varies between sellers. In a building of 5 or more strata homes, the trust requirement is section 18 of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act. Section 19 lets the seller use the money instead if it has a deposit protection contract with an insurer and has given you notice.
What the province protects you from
It is worth being precise about this, because pre-sale buying gets described either as completely safe or as a gamble, and it is neither.
In a building of 5 or more strata homes, you are protected against a seller who hides a material fact, because section 22 gives you a right to damages if the disclosure statement misrepresents one. Your deposit is protected either by the trust account or, if the seller uses the money under section 19, by a deposit protection contract with an insurer. You get a cooling-off period of 7 days. In a duplex, triplex or fourplex sold as strata homes, the cooling-off period is 3 business days under the Property Law Act, at a cost of 0.25% of the price. And you get warranty insurance on the finished home, which is coverage that survives even if the company that built it disappears.
You are not protected against the market. Prices can be lower on completion day than they were when you signed, and no rule changes that. You are also not protected against your own financing falling through, which is the single most common way a pre-sale purchase goes wrong. In our view that risk is worth more attention than it usually gets, and it is the reason we tell buyers to talk to a lender before they sign, not after.
Who this way of buying suits, and who it does not
Buying pre-sale is a good fit for a household with a flexible living situation and a stable income. You get first choice of the homes in a building, which on a small multiplex matters more than it does in a tower, because there may only be four or six homes and only one of them has the yard. You also get time. The gap between the first deposit and completion is a period in which you can keep saving.
It suits families who are buying together for the same reason. Two households coordinating one purchase need lead time to sort out how they will hold title, how they will share costs, and which home each family takes. A pre-sale purchase gives them that time by design.
It is a poor fit if you have to move by a particular date, because completion dates move. It is also a poor fit if your income is likely to change, since your lender will assess you again near the end rather than relying on the approval you had at the start. If either of those describes you, look at homes that are finished or nearly finished instead. There is no penalty for buying later in the cycle, and the certainty is worth a great deal.
What to check about the people selling you the home
You can look up more than most buyers realise, and all of it is free.
Home warranty insurance in British Columbia is only available on homes built by a Licensed Residential Builder, and BC Housing maintains the licensing system behind that requirement. Ask for the licence details and the name of the warranty provider, then confirm both rather than taking a brochure at face value. Ask which specific homes the same company has already finished, and go and look at one.
Be careful with what a company says about itself. Awards, memberships and rankings on a company's own website are claims rather than confirmed facts, and the bodies that award them almost always publish their own lists. If a claim matters to your decision, check it at the source. We apply that rule to ourselves as well: everything on these pages is sourced to the body that issues it, and where a figure is set by your own contract rather than by law, we say so instead of quoting a number that sounds authoritative.
Everything in this guide
Each page below answers one question in full. Read them in order or jump to the one you need.
Before you sign
The documents, the deposit, and the window in which you can still walk away.
While the home is being finished
What happens over the months in between, and what to do when the date moves.
Getting the keys
The walkthrough, the warranty, and the money that changes hands on completion day.
Questions buyers ask
Also worth reading
- Pre-sale buyer rights in BCThe disclosure statement, rescission and deposit protection, in more legal detail
- Pre-sale multiplex checklistWhat to check before you sign anything
- Pre-sales in VancouverMultiplex projects selling now on the Vancouver side
- Pre-sales in BurnabyMultiplex projects selling now in Burnaby
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.
- Real Estate Development Marketing Act, SBC 2004, c. 41. BC Laws, Queen's Printer for British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026; sections 1, 18, 19 and 21 read again 9 October 2026.
- Property Law Act, RSBC 1996, c. 377, section 42, and Home Buyer Rescission Period Regulation, B.C. Reg. 175/2022. BC Laws, King's Printer for British Columbia. Current to 6 October 2026, accessed 9 October 2026.
- Home Warranty Insurance: What Homeowners Need to Know. BC Housing. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- What is the first-time home buyers' GST/HST rebate. Canada Revenue Agency. Page updated 30 March 2026, accessed 29 August 2026.
- Newly Built Home Exemption. Province of British Columbia. Thresholds effective 1 April 2024, accessed 29 August 2026.
- Condo and Strata Assignment Integrity Register (CSAIR). Province of British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- Property transfer tax rates. Province of British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026.
Not sure where your family fits?
Tell us who is buying, roughly what you can spend, and which areas you are looking at. We will send back the homes that actually match, and say plainly when nothing does.