Starting on January 1, 2023, foreign home buyers will not be able to purchase residential real estate in Canada for a period of 2 years. Here's what you need to know:
This legislation was created to:
- Reduce foreign money coming into Canada to buy residential real estate
- Establish penalties for anyone who helps a non-Canadian to violate this law
- Cool the hot housing market from early 2022 and keep more housing inventory available for local Canadians to buy
- Foreign Buyers = Non-Canadian citizens and Non-Canadian Permanent Residents
- Corporations and/or Entities owned by Foreign Buyers
- Canadian citizens and permanent residents
- International students who meet certain requirements (ie: having spent the majority of the previous five years in Canada), can purchase a property for no more than $500,000.
- Workers who have worked and filed tax returns in Canada for at least three out of the four years before purchasing residential property
- Diplomats, consular staff, and members of international organizations living in Canada.
- Foreign nationals with temporary resident status which includes people fleeing conflict and refugees
Other Exemptions:
- Buildings containing more than three-dwelling units and recreational property (ie: cottages, cabins, and other vacation homes)
- Doesn't apply when someone acquires the property through divorce, separation, gifting or death; when a dwelling unit is rented to a tenant who will occupy the unit; or when the acquisition is the result of exercising a security interest or secured right by a secured creditor
