Here’s an update on the Vancouver real estate 2023. There are 3 changes we wanted to let our clients know about. First, there’s a new home buyer rescission period, or sometimes called ‘cooling off period’. Secondly, there’s a change to the strata act, cancelling all rental restrictions in strata buildings. Lastly, there’s a foreign buyer ban of all residential real estate in Canada for 2 years.
Home Buyer Rescission Period
At the end of 2022, the B.C government introduced a new law which came into effect as of January 1st 2023.
Cooling off period or rather Home buyer rescission period gives home buyers the right to rescind from a deal within a designated timeline. Here are few points to explain in simple terms the new rule.
- First of all, When buyers have an accepted offer they now have 3 full business days to rescind from the deal with no questions asked.
- Secondly, If a buyer chooses to exercise their right of rescission they need to compensate the seller 0.25% on the contract price. To illustrate it for a 1 million dollar offer the compensation is $2500.
- Thirdly, the new rule is not replacing the subject conditions and the due diligence by the buyer. If the buyer rescinds from the contract due to a deficiency or fail to obtain financing, they will not be on the hook for compensating the seller and can walk away and not remove subjects— just like in the past.
- Lastly, this rule doesn’t apply to all properties and there are exceptions to the rule — such as leasehold properties, auction sales, and court order sales.
No Rental Restriction in Strata Buildings
There’s no longer rental restrictions in strata buildings and condos. David Eby, the new premier, part of his plan was to address the housing crisis in the province. By removing all rental restrictions, more properties should be available rent.
We feel this is a wonderful change and it will help add more properties to the rental pool. This is definitely long-overdue. For so many years strata councils used these restrictions as a power tool to dictate what owners could and couldn’t do with their homes. So this is a welcomed change to Vancouver real estate in 2023.
Real Estate Foreign Buyer Ban in Canada
As of the start of 2023, there’s a complete ban on foreign buyers purchasing residential real estate in Canada for 2 years. In our opinion this will have very little impact on our local real estate market. This is Because, If you remember, there was a hefty foreign buyer tax implemented back in 2016, which absolutely killed the foreign buyer marketing in Greater Vancouver.
Jacob & Jacky Real Estate team is a leading Vancouver realtor team for close to 20 years. If you have any real estate questions, or plan on selling your home in the near future, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for real estate advice.
