Foreign-Buyers Tax Now Mainstream in Canada

When Canadians last went to the polls in 2015 you would have had to scour the country to find someone willing to talk about a surtax on foreign nationals buying real estate.

Now, such taxes are just considered the right thing to do. And B.C. has shown the way.
Ignited by the public’s anger over the housing affordability crisis, the B.C. Liberals surprised everyone in 2016 by going against their own free-market ideology by quickly imposing a 15-per-cent tax on foreign purchasers of housing in Metro Vancouver.

Reactions were immediate. Property developers and their lobbyists, plus some activists and a handful of academics, claimed a foreign-buyers tax was xenophobic and even racist.

However, the foreign-buyers tax took some fuel out of Vancouver’s stratospheric housing prices and had some impact on housing prices in Victoria. And after the B.C. NDP narrowly won office in 2017, it hiked the surtax to 20 per cent and expanded it to Victoria and other cities.

Now there is talk of imposing taxes or even outright bans on a Federal level. What will happen next?

Greater Victoria Neighbourhoods – Esquimalt

Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and surrounded by a marine environment, many homes in Esquimalt boast panoramic ocean views of the Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains. The area is encompassed by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Esquimalt Harbour, and the Gorge inlet.

Esquimalt is steeped in history. The native inhabitants called this “Es-whoy-malth” which means “the place of shoaling waters”. Esquimalt Harbour became the west coast base for the British Royal Navy in 1837. Today, Canada’s Pacific Naval Fleet calls CFB Esquimalt home as do over 4000 military service personnel and 2000 civilians who work onboard ships or at the base.

Over the last decade, the township of Esquimalt put a great deal of planning, money and love into developing their community. Today, families thrive here amongst over 30 parks, a sports centre, a state-of-the-art recreation center and library, and a wide variety of restaurants and shopping amenities.

I recommend exploring Saxe Point Park, MacAulay Point Park and the West Bay Marina (https://www.westbay.bc.ca/Marina.aspx). You will love walking or jogging along the shoreline walkways in Esquimalt.

Esquimalt embodies the live, work, & play lifestyle.

Should You be Worried About the “Big One”?

Victoria is in a seismically active zone, and Vancouver Island experienced two large historic earthquakes: A Magnitude 7.0 in 1918 and Magnitude 7.3 in 1946. The 1946 earthquake was the most damaging in western Canada and caused minor damage in Victoria which was 200 km from the epicentre.

Geologists have pointed out the potential for another large earthquake originating from the Cascadia subduction zone west of Vancouver Island sometime between now and 500 years; less than the blink of an eye in geological time, but lifetimes for us.

If you’re concerned about earthquakes, liquefaction, amplification hazards or slope instability, check out the area you’re interested in purchasing your home with this map produced by the Ministry of Energy and Mines in 2000.
LINK http://cmscontent.nrs.gov.bc.ca/geoscience/PublicationCatalogue/GeoscienceMap/BCGS_GM2000-01.pdf

Realize, however, that this map is for regional purposes only, such as land use and emergency response planning, and should not be used for site-specific evaluations. In Greater Victoria, developers hire site-specific geotechnical evaluations prior to new construction or for upgrading buildings and other facilities. There are also many resources for you to review to secure and earthquake-proof your new home.
LINK https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/public-safety/emergency-preparedness/earthquake-readiness.html

The Arts - Pacific Opera Victoria

It’s been nearly fifty years since all three operas of Il Trittico (The Triptych) by Puccini have been produced and performed in Canada. If you love opera, you must see this truly emotional and beautiful masterpiece!

The three operas include:

Il tabarro (The Cloak) sees infidelity and suspicion brutally end a marriage in this dark thriller.

Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) features a nun struggling with anguish and guilt in this lyrical tragedy.

Gianni Schicchi showcases the greed and unscrupulous behaviour leads to a family’s comeuppance as they fight over an inheritance.

Read more on the Pacific Opera Victoria website: https://pacificopera.ca

Canadians Extracted Almost Half A Trillion in Home Equity

A HELOC is a line of credit secured against your home. In Canada, homeowners can access up to 65 percent of the value of their home through a HELOC. But the sum of the outstanding mortgage balance and HELOC must not exceed 80 percent of the value of the home.

Mortgage refinancing means replacing your existing mortgage with a larger one—up to 80 percent of the value of the home.

But why are Canadians extracting money from their home equity? That’s the topic of another article, but it’s worth noting that using it to maintain an inflated lifestyle is never a good idea. However, using it to purchase real estate investments may be a good way to increase your overall net collateral.

References: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2019/09/staff-analytical-note-2019-27

Political Promises About Housing – Justin Trudeau

Trudeau pledged, if the Liberals are re-elected, of course, to expand the First Time Home Buyers Incentive (FTHBI), implemented September 2nd, to cover home values of up to $789,000, replacing the current cap of $480,000 in the hot housing markets of the Greater Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria.

The proposed expansion of the program does not apply to areas outside of those three markets.

Reference: https://globalnews.ca/news/5893892/trudeau-liberals-first-time-homebuyers-program-expansion-campaign-promise

Political Promises About Housing – Andrew Scheer

The Federal election is underway, and Canadians are once again hearing political promises from candidates. On the housing front, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will make it cheaper for Canadians to buy homes by allowing first-time home buyers to take out 30-year mortgages to help lower monthly payments.

He also promised to ease what’s known as the stress test on mortgages and remove it altogether from mortgage renewals. “For millions of Canadians their home is the largest investment they will ever make,” Scheer said.

Reference: https://globalnews.ca/news/5939018/andrew-scheer-mortgages-housing