BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax: A Landlord’s Handbook (with Empty Homes Tax)

The Province describes SVT as an annual tax tied to how a residential property in a designated area is used, the owner’s residency, and where the owner reports income. Revenue is described as supporting affordable housing in the areas where the tax applies. Read how the tax works on gov.bc.ca. This page does not replace that hub.

Only residential property in a designated taxable area is in the declaration net. The live list and the speculation and vacancy tax location map are the references. The Metro Vancouver section of the taxable areas page, last updated 8 December 2025 and re-read 1 October 2026 PT, includes the City of Burnaby and the City of Vancouver. Do not treat this paragraph as a complete area list. Excluded lands, including reserve, treaty, and self-governing Indigenous Nation lands, are described on that same page.

Owners in a taxable area declare every year, even if the facts have not changed. Each person on title generally makes a separate declaration. The letter mailed to the BC Assessment address carries the Letter ID and Declaration Code used online or by phone.

Who is commonly in scope

The tax looks at owners of residential property in a taxable area. The rate then depends on categories the Province defines: Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are not untaxed worldwide earners, and foreign owners or untaxed worldwide earners. The Province describes an untaxed worldwide earner as a category that includes members of a satellite family. This page does not decide which category you are.

Rates, re-read 1 October 2026 PT

The tax-rates page was last updated 3 July 2026. For the 2026 tax year it lists 3 percent for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners, and 1 percent for Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are not untaxed worldwide earners. Those percentages apply to use in the 2026 calendar year, not to a declaration about 2025. Effective 1 January 2027 the same page lists 4 percent and 1 percent for those two groups. For 2019 through 2025 it lists 2 percent and 0.5 percent. Shared ownership is divided by ownership share. A corporation, trustee, or business partner can be charged the highest rate that would apply to any interest holder.

One older sentence still sits on the how-the-tax-works page, last updated 31 December 2025: it says a missed declaration is charged at a maximum of 2 percent. The rates page updated in July 2026 lists higher 2026 and 2027 rates. Use the rates page for the current percentages, and treat the 2 percent sentence as wording that has not caught up.

Declaration and payment

The declaration is due 31 March and covers the previous calendar year. The Province’s example: in 2026 you declare how you used the property in 2025. If tax is owing, payment is due the following July. The rates page says tax for a calendar year is due the following July, and gives 2 July 2026 as the due date for 2025 tax. The declaration page’s important dates for that same cycle list letters in January and February 2026, declaration opening 19 January 2026, declaration due 31 March 2026, and payment due 2 July 2026. Those dated examples are the 2025-use cycle, not a promise about a later year’s exact business day. Re-read how to declare before you act.

EHT is a municipal vacancy tax. It is not SVT. The Province says a Vancouver owner must declare separately for each tax and can be exempt from one while owing the other. Start at the City’s Empty Homes Tax page, then the property-status declaration, evidence and exemptions, and deadlines and penalties pages.

A direct fetch of vancouver.ca on 1 October 2026 PT was blocked by the City’s security check. The figures below are from the City page text retrieved the same day, not from a competitor blog. Re-open the live City pages before you file or pay. City pages say properties deemed or declared empty in the 2025 reference year are subject to a tax of 3 percent of the property’s 2025 assessed taxable value. The same pages list a 2025 declaration deadline of 3 February 2026 and a 2025 Empty Homes Tax payment date of 16 April 2026. A City FAQ excerpt also describes earlier rates as 1 percent for 2017 to 2019, 1.25 percent for 2020, and 3 percent from 2021. This handbook does not invent a 2026-reference-year deadline. When the City publishes the next cycle, use that page.

Burnaby, and homes that are not in Vancouver

EHT is a City of Vancouver tax. A Burnaby landlord does not pay Vancouver EHT on a Burnaby home. Burnaby is still on the provincial taxable-area list, so SVT can apply. An owner who holds one home in Burnaby and another in Vancouver may be looking at SVT for both and EHT only for the Vancouver home. Confirm each address. The federal Underused Housing Tax is a separate Canada Revenue Agency program. The home owner grant is also separate. This page does not calculate either one.

The Province’s exemptions for individuals page, last updated 28 July 2026, is the list to read. Themes owners ask about include principal residence, a previous principal residence, tenant occupancy, a home that cannot be lived in, medical treatment, a recent purchase or inheritance, separation or divorce, bankruptcy, and the recent death of an owner. Each theme has conditions. This page does not decide that your address qualifies.

On tenant occupancy, that page says: if a renter or non-arm’s-length tenant occupies the home for at least six months in the calendar year, the owner may be exempt, and the tenancy requirements on the page must be met. Read the examples there before you declare. A signed tenancy agreement and rent records are the kind of paperwork owners keep so they can answer those questions. They are not, by themselves, an exemption.

Vancouver’s tests are on the evidence and exemptions page. Do not assume a provincial six-month theme is the City’s test. Where co-owners are on title, the Province says each owner claims the exemption that applies to that owner. Spouses do not automatically receive two principal-residence exemptions.

Between tenants. A gap after one tenancy ends and before the next one starts can matter if the official occupancy test is measured in months. The gap is not automatically fatal, and it is not automatically fine. Check the Province and, if the home is in Vancouver, the City. Then estimate with the calculator. If you want the next tenancy started, compare placement and full management.

An out-of-town owner leaving the home empty. An empty home in a taxable area is the situation both programs are built around. Read the exemption pages, run the calculator as a planning estimate, and decide whether a tenancy is the plan.

Foreign owner or satellite family. The Province uses “untaxed worldwide earner” as a category that includes members of a satellite family, and it lists foreign owners with that category at the higher rate. This page does not classify you. Next steps stay the same: official exemption pages, the calculator, and, if a rental is the plan, the property management hub.

The calculator at alexlam.net/tools/bc-empty-homes-tax-calculator estimates Vancouver Empty Homes Tax and B.C. Speculation and Vacancy Tax from numbers you type: year, municipality, use, assessed value, ownership share, and owner class. It is a planning estimate. It is not an official assessment, not a filed declaration, and not a ruling that an exemption applies.

It does not rebuild the City or Province portals, and this handbook does not rebuild the calculator. Open the tool, read its own disclaimer, then file on the official sites if you have a declaration to make. Selling instead of holding is a different path, covered on sell a tenanted home in BC.

Watch for the Province’s letter, or for City instructions, and keep the access codes with the file.

• If both taxes can apply, put both deadlines on the calendar. They are not the same date.
• Declare even when last year looks the same. The Province requires the annual declaration.
• Keep the tenancy agreement and rent records if you are claiming an occupancy-related exemption.
• If tax is owing, use the payment date printed on the official notice, not a date remembered from a blog.
• Each owner on title should confirm whether they must declare separately.

A missed provincial declaration is not a small paperwork issue. Read the current rates page for what non-declaration costs, because older pages on the same site still mention a 2 percent maximum.

A rented home with a real tenancy file is often part of the conversation owners have about vacancy taxes. Property management does not create an exemption. The statute and the City by-law do. A manager can help with marketing, screening, and the records a later declaration may ask for, when that work is in the written scope. The licensed property manager page explains the licence. The hire versus self-manage page is the fork if you might keep the calendar yourself. Rent increases, if a tenancy is in place, stay on the BC rent increase guide. Fee structures are on the property management fees page. Prestige does not publish a rate card.

If the plan is to keep the home rented and documented, we can discuss placement or full management for Burnaby and Greater Vancouver. Submit your rental when the vacancy is the immediate job, or read how to choose a property manager if you are still comparing firms.