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Through the B.C. HOME Partnership program, the Province is helping first-time home buyers by contributing to the amount they have already saved for a down payment with a loan that is interest-free and payment-free for the first five years.
Here is how it works:
The B.C. HOME Partnership program will start accepting applications Jan. 16, 2017.
The B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity (HOME) Partnership supports eligible first-time homebuyers. To qualify for the program, all individuals with a registered interest on title must reside in the home and:
Step 1: Get preapproval for an insured first mortgage from your financial lending institution.
Step 2: Apply to BC Housing for the Home Owner Mortgage and Equity (HOME) partnership loan. If you are eligible, you will receive confirmation of eligibility and Homebuyer’s Kit which includes information for your Lender, Real Estate Agent, and Lawyer/Notary Public.
Step 3: Find your home and provide the details of your planned purchase to BC Housing for approval.
Applications for the program will be accepted starting Jan. 16, 2017, for purchases that will close on or after Feb. 15, 2017.
B.C.’s premier has announced the province is lifting the 15 per cent foreign buyers tax for anyone living in Metro Vancouver with a work permit.
The move is an effort to encourage people to come to the province. Those who live, work and pay B.C. taxes will now be exempt from the additional property transfer tax.
The First Time Home Buyers' Program reduces or eliminates the amount of property transfer tax you pay when you purchase your first home. If you qualify for the program, you may be eligible for either a full or partial exemption from the tax.
If one or more of the purchasers don’t qualify, only the percentage of interest that the first time home buyer(s) have in the property is eligible.
For example, if you qualify and purchase a property with a fair market value of $400,000 with a person who doesn’t qualify you would still qualify. If you owned a 60% interest in the property, 60% of the tax amount would be eligible for the exemption.
To qualify for a full exemption, at the time the property is registered you must:
and the property must:
Those with less than 20% down will qualify for a lot less
Ottawa moved to tighten mortgage lending rules that will limit the amount many Canadians can borrow to help ensure that when interest rates rise, they’ll still be able to make their payments.
Under the new rules, a stress test that had only applied to borrowers who opted for variable rate mortgages or fixed rate mortgages with terms less than five years will now be used for all home buyers with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
That means borrowers must be able to qualify for their mortgage using a higher interest rate than they will actually be paying on their mortgage.
The advertised special offer rates for a five-year fixed rate mortgage at Canada’s big banks are around 2.5 per cent. However, the Bank of Canada-posted rate used in the stress test is 4.64 per cent based on the posted rate at the big banks.
The Newly Built Home Exemption reduces or eliminates the amount of property transfer tax you pay when you purchase a newly built home.
If you qualify for the exemption, you may be eligible for either a full or partial exemption from the tax.
If you paid property transfer tax when you purchased vacant land and you now have a newly built home on the land, you may be eligible for a refund of the property transfer tax you paid.
The exemption doesn’t apply to the additional property transfer tax on residential transfers to foreign nationals or foreign corporations.
To qualify, the property (land and improvement) must be registered at the land title office after February 16, 2016 and you must be:
and the property must:
You may qualify for a partial exemption, if the property:
Foreign nationals who buy real estate in Metro Vancouver would pay an additional property transfer tax of 15 per cent under legislation introduced by the British Columbia government.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong unveiled the tax as part of legislation aimed at addressing low vacancy rates and high real estate prices in southern B.C.
"For example, the additional tax on the purchase of a home selling for $2 million to a foreign national will amount to an additional $300,000," de Jong told members of the legislature.
The additional tax took effect Aug02,2016 and apply to foreign buyers registering the purchase of residential homes in Metro Vancouver, excluding treaty lands in the Tsawwassen First Nation.
All B.C. residents currently pay a one per cent tax on the first $200,000 of their purchase, two per cent on the remaining value up to $2 million and three per cent on the portion above that.