A Vancouver investor I spoke with last month owned a Kitsilano rental property for nine years. Before listing, she moved in for fifteen months, updated her driver's license, and forwarded her mail. That move shielded 27.8% of her capital gain from tax. She saved $31,400. The
How Uninsured Mortgage Renewers Can Shop Lenders in 2026 Without Re-Qualifying On November 21, 2024, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions removed a critical barrier for mortgage borrowers with 20% or more equity. For the first time since the stress test became widespread in 2018, investors at
At 62, most Canadian homeowners sit on roughly $800,000 in equity and wonder when downsizing stops being a plan and becomes an emergency. The standard answer is "wait until you need to move," which guarantees selling under pressure while competing for the same small condo everyone else
The cancellation landed March 21, 2025. Prime Minister Mark Carney killed the Liberal government's proposed increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, which would have raised the taxable share from 50% to 66.67% on gains above $250,000. The rate stays at 50% through 2026 and beyond,
Active listings in British Columbia have reached a ten-year high. Sellers who listed in March expecting multiple bids are still waiting for a single showing in May. According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association's Q2 2026 forecast, the provincial average home price is projected to fall
When the Bank of Canada held its overnight rate at 2.25% on June 10 for the fifth consecutive meeting, most homeowners read it as stability. For BC mortgage investors managing renewal timelines and portfolio allocation, it delivered the worst of both outcomes. Rates aren't falling. That removes
A 28-year-old software engineer in Victoria sits across from me with $90,000 saved. She wants to buy an investment condo. The down payment would be $75,000. The remaining $15,000 would be her emergency fund, her TFSA, and everything else. One building, one tenant, one city.
Vancouver's rental market just flipped. In late 2025, Metro Vancouver's vacancy rate hit 3.7%, the highest since 1988. Rents dropped 7.9% year over year by January 2026. BC registered 25,855 new rental units in 2025 alone, a 40% jump from the prior year,
A 42-year-old software architect in Victoria just signed an offer letter for $248,000, up from $160,000. That's an $88,000 raise. After federal and provincial marginal tax rates eat roughly 48% of the increase, she nets about $45,760 more per year. Within six
A 22-year-old earning $52,000 has roughly $21,000 of TFSA room and will generate about $9,400 of new RRSP room this year. Next year, she'll generate another $9,500-ish. The year after, maybe $10,000. The RRSP room is a production line: it
You pay off a $22,000 Visa balance at 19.99% with your HELOC at Prime plus half, and six months later the Visa is back at $18,000. Now you owe both. This happens so often that mortgage brokers in Victoria have a name for it: double-decking. The
Marcus was 31 when he signed the unconditional offer on a two-bedroom condo in Langford in February 2025, about $687,000, with a closing date set for April 14th. His mortgage broker had walked him through the numbers three weeks earlier. Gross Debt Service ratio at 38.2%, Total