Will your strata management company charge you PST?
The 2026 BC budget includes the expansion of PST to “non-residential real estate services, including trading services, rental property management services and strata management services,” according to the Government’s notice. Does that mean your strata management company will now charge you PST if you own a condo? We asked the Rulings and Interpretations Team at the Ministry of Finance directly, and the answer appears to be no.
According to the Rulings and Interpretations Team, “the changes do not apply to residential real estate services. They will continue to be treated as non-taxable services.”
So why all the speculation they will? It depends on how people interpret this line. It appears to apply to professional real estate services rendered with respect to commercial properties, excluding residential property. However, some have speculated that under certain interpretations of this budget line that the current application may be broad enough to capture some residential-adjacent services, such as professional strata management and rental services with respect to residential properties. Some strata management companies have already sent notices to their residents that they will be charging PST from their clients because of this expansion of PST.
According to the guidance we received from the Rulings and Interpretations Team at the Ministry of Finance, this speculation appears to be incorrect, and PST will not apply to residential real estate services.
Higher school tax on $3 million-plus properties.
If you own a property that is assessed at a value of $3 million or more, you will see your school tax increase “from 0.2% to 0.3% for property values between $3 million and $4 million and from 0.4% to 0.6% for property values above $4 million, effective for the 2027 tax year,” according to the 2026 Budget Backgrounder.
Note that this increase in the school tax applies to detached homes, townhomes, condos and most empty or vacant lots as well. That means you will have to pay it even if there’s nothing built on your property, as long as its assessed value is $3 million or more.
Increased BC speculation and vacancy tax.
The BC speculation and vacancy tax (SVT) will increase for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners to 4% for the 2027 tax year, up from the current 3% rate. As a reminder, SVT declarations are due March 31st.
You can also avoid the SVT if you rent out your property or move in and use it as your primary residence yourself. Also remember that the BC speculation and vacancy tax is separate from Vancouver’s empty homes tax (EHT). If your property is in Vancouver, your EHT declaration is due in early February.
Increased interest rates for the property tax deferment program.
If you are an eligible (that is, for the regular program, 55 or older during the current year, a surviving spouse of any age or a person with disabilities, and for the families with children program, you are currently supporting a child) current homeowner in BC and you want to defer paying your property taxes on your principal residence, your interest rate will now go from simple to compound and will adopt a prime-plus-2% rate for new loans in the 2026 tax year onward.
If you are already deferring your property tax payments under this program prior to the 2026 tax year, you will pay the interest rate in your existing applicable deferment agreement.
So far, these are the most immediate impacts for Homeseekers when it comes to the 2026 BC budget. However, there may be longer-term effects of the budget. While these impacts will be more indirect, they could mean bigger stumbling blocks for BC real estate as a whole, and we’ll discuss these impacts in more detail in an upcoming article.
