British Columbia land transfer tax calculator
$13,000 on a $750,000 home. Due in cash on closing, and it cannot go on the mortgage.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 1, 2026Scale read off the authority that sets it on 2026-09-07British Columbia calls it property transfer tax, runs it from 1% to 3%, and adds a further 2% on the residential value above $3 million.
on $750,000 — 1.73% of the price
| British Columbia tax | $13,000 |
| Total | $13,000 |
What British Columbia charges to buy a home
British Columbia calls it property transfer tax, runs it from 1% to 3%, and adds a further 2% on the residential value above $3 million. On a $750,000 purchase that comes to $13,000, or 1.73% of the price.
It is charged on the value of the consideration — usually the purchase price, but it also picks up assumed liabilities, upgrades and certain soft costs, and in some transfers the fair market value is used instead.
The tax is due on closing and, unlike almost every other cost of buying, it cannot be rolled into the mortgage. It has to be cash. On this purchase that is $13,000 that has to exist in an account on the day, on top of the deposit and the legal fees.
The British Columbia scale
1.00% from $0 to $200,000; 2.00% from $200,000 to $2,000,000; 3.00% from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000; 5.00% above $3,000,000. Each rate applies only to the part of the price inside its own band, the same way an income tax bracket does — so crossing a threshold never costs you more than the dollar that crossed it.
$400,000 — $6,000, an effective 1.50%.
$750,000 — $13,000, an effective 1.73%.
$1,200,000 — $22,000, an effective 1.83%.
$2,500,000 — $53,000, an effective 2.12%.
The 3% band is not the top. Residential value above $3,000,000 carries a further 2%, so that slice is taxed at an effective 5% — the detail that turns a Vancouver west-side purchase into a materially bigger bill than the headline scale suggests.
What a first-time buyer gets back
British Columbia exempts the first $500,000 outright, with a partial exemption between $835,000 and $860,000 above which it disappears. You must have filed at least two BC tax returns in the last six years and never have owned a principal residence anywhere.
On $750,000 that is worth $8,000, taking the bill from $13,000 to $5,000.
The eligibility test is stricter than people expect: never having owned a home anywhere in the world, not just in Canada. Inheriting a share of a property counts as having owned one. And in Ontario the rule reaches your spouse — if they owned a home while they were your spouse, you do not qualify either.
The same $750,000 home across Canada
Transfer tax on an identical purchase, cheapest first:
1. Alberta — nothing
2. Saskatchewan — nothing
3. Quebec — $9,361
4. Montreal — $10,349
5. Ontario — $11,475
6. British Columbia — $13,000 ← this page
7. Toronto — $22,950
British Columbia comes 6 of 7. The spread is $22,950 on the same house, which is a bigger difference than most people's moving costs — and it is money that has to be found in cash.
Four jurisdictions charge nothing: Alberta, Saskatchewan and the three territories only levy registration fees. That is not a rounding difference, it is a structural one, and any calculator that returns a figure for Alberta is inventing it.
Where the first-time buyer relief runs out
The relief is not a percentage, it is a ceiling — so it covers the whole tax up to a point and then stops growing. Measured by recalculating price by price, that point in British Columbia is around $501,000. Below it a qualifying first-time buyer pays nothing at all; above it they pay the difference.
$501,000 — $20 after a $8,000 refund.
$751,000 — $5,020 after a $8,000 refund.
$1,251,000 — $23,020 after a $0 refund.
The practical consequence: the relief matters most to the buyers with the least, and disappears fastest in the markets where homes cost the most. In British Columbia it stops covering the full bill at a price that is below the average detached home in several of its cities.
Why this one has to be cash
Almost every cost of buying a home can be financed. The purchase itself is a mortgage. Renovations can be rolled in. Even the deposit is often borrowed. Land transfer tax cannot be, and that is what makes it the cost that catches people out.
On $750,000 in British Columbia that is $13,000 that has to be in an account on closing day, on top of the down payment, the legal fees, the title insurance and the adjustments. It is the reason a purchase that looked affordable on the mortgage calculator can fail three weeks before it completes.
The order of events matters too: the tax is calculated on the value of the consideration, which is not always the price on the listing. Assumed liabilities count. Upgrades on a new build count. And on certain transfers — long leases, some transfers between a corporation and its shareholders — the fair market value is used instead of what was actually paid.
What actually moves the number
The thresholds in British Columbia sit at $200,000, $2,000,000, $3,000,000. Negotiating a price down across one of them does not produce a cliff — only the dollars above the line are taxed at the higher rate — but the marginal cost of the last dollar does step up at each one.
At $200,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $200 in extra tax — an effective 2.00% on that slice.
At $2,000,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $300 in extra tax — an effective 3.00% on that slice.
At $3,000,000, the next $10,000 of price costs $500 in extra tax — an effective 5.00% on that slice.
That is the honest way to read a transfer tax scale: not as a rate on the house, but as a rate on each part of its price. The headline "1.73%" on a $750,000 purchase is an average of several different rates, and it is never the rate you pay on the last dollar you negotiate.
Where these rates come from
Every scale on this page was read off the authority that sets it, with the date:
Ontario Ministry of Finance — Calculating Land Transfer Tax — read 2026-09-07. https://www.ontario.ca/document/land-transfer-tax/calculating-land-transfer-tax
Ontario Ministry of Finance — Land Transfer Tax Refunds for First-Time Homebuyers — read 2026-09-07. https://www.ontario.ca/document/land-transfer-tax/land-transfer-tax-refunds-first-time-homebuyers
City of Toronto — Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees (rates as of 1 April 2026) — read 2026-09-07. https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/property-taxes-utilities/municipal-land-transfer-tax-mltt/municipal-land-transfer-tax-mltt-rates-and-fees/
Province of British Columbia — Property transfer tax — read 2026-09-07. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/property-transfer-tax
Gouvernement du Québec — Droits sur les mutations immobilières — read 2026-09-07. https://www.quebec.ca/gouvernement/gestion-municipale/finances-fiscalite-municipales/fiscalite/droits-mutations-immobilieres
Ville de Montréal — Comment sont calculés les droits sur les mutations immobilières (tranches 2026) — read 2026-09-07. https://montreal.ca/articles/comment-sont-calcules-les-droits-sur-les-mutations-immobilieres-9279
And what this figure does not cover:
— Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are not covered yet. Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces do charge a transfer tax — in Nova Scotia it is set municipally — and publishing an estimate before reading each authority would be worse than the gap.
— Registration and title fees are excluded everywhere. They are small next to the tax but they are not zero, and they are charged even in the provinces that levy no transfer tax at all.
— The tax is calculated on the value of the consideration, which is usually the purchase price but not always: assumed liabilities, upgrades and soft costs count, and in some transfers the fair market value is used instead.
— Quebec municipalities other than Montreal use the provincial floor here. Any municipality may raise its brackets above $500,000 up to 3%, and many do, so a purchase outside Montreal can cost more than this shows.
Where to go next
Questions
- How much is land transfer tax on a $750,000 home in British Columbia?
- $13,000. That is 1.73% of the price, due in cash on closing.
- What do first-time buyers get back in British Columbia?
- British Columbia exempts the first $500,000 outright, with a partial exemption between $835,000 and $860,000 above which it disappears. You must have filed at least two BC tax returns in the last six years and never have owned a principal residence anywhere. On $750,000 that is worth $8,000, bringing the bill to $5,000.
- Can I add land transfer tax to my mortgage?
- No. It is due on closing and it has to be cash, which is what makes it the cost that surprises people — it sits on top of the deposit and the legal fees, and no lender will finance it.
- Which provinces have no land transfer tax?
- Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. They charge registration fees on the title and the mortgage instead, which are much smaller and are a fee for a service rather than a tax on the transaction.