Quick answer: A 2026 owner's guide to the two vacancy taxes that still apply to empty Vancouver homes — the provincial Speculation and Vacancy Tax and the City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax — plus confirmation that the federal Underused Housing Tax was eliminated as of the 2025 calendar year.
Three different vacancy taxes can hit one empty Vancouver condo, and two of them stack. Here's who pays the BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax and the City's Empty Homes Tax, the rates, the declaration deadlines, the exemptions that actually save you money, and why the federal Underused Housing Tax is now gone.
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I get the same call every February. An owner — usually someone who bought a condo for a kid in university, or who’s between tenants, or who inherited a place and hasn’t sorted out probate — opens their mail and finds a letter saying they owe thousands on a home nobody bought, sold, or even moved into that year. They didn’t do anything wrong. They just didn’t file a one-page declaration on time, and the system defaulted them to “vacant.”
That’s the thing most people miss about Vancouver’s vacancy taxes: the penalty usually isn’t for leaving a home empty. It’s for not telling the government the home wasn’t empty. Two separate taxes can land on a single Vancouver property, each with its own form, its own deadline, and its own way of assuming the worst if you stay quiet. A third tax, the federal one, used to make it three — but that one’s been killed off, and I’ll explain exactly where it stands so you don’t file a return you no longer owe.
Here’s the practical version, in the order the deadlines hit you.
The three taxes, and which ones still apply
For years, an empty condo in the City of Vancouver could face a triple stack: a provincial tax, a city tax, and a federal tax. As of the 2025 calendar year, the federal one is off the table. So in 2026 you’re really managing two:
- BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT) — provincial, applies across most of Metro Vancouver including the City of Vancouver.
- City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax (EHT) — municipal, applies only inside Vancouver city limits.
- Federal Underused Housing Tax (UHT) — eliminated as of the 2025 calendar year. No return, no payment for 2025 onward. (Details below — and yes, 2022–2024 still matter for some owners.)
If your property is inside the City of Vancouver and it sits empty without a valid exemption, both the SVT and the EHT can apply to the same home in the same year. They are not coordinated. One is the Province’s, one is the City’s, and neither cares that you already paid the other.
BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax (the provincial one)
The Province’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax covers designated taxable areas across the province, which include Metro Vancouver and the City of Vancouver. According to the Province’s taxable areas page, reserve lands, treaty lands, and lands of self-governing Indigenous Nations are carved out, as are islands reachable only by air or water (Vancouver Island excepted). If you’re not sure your specific lot is in, the Province publishes an interactive map — check it rather than guessing.
What you pay
The rate depends on who you are, not just whether the home was empty. Per the Province’s tax rates page, for the 2025 tax year (the one most owners declared this past spring):
- 0.5% of assessed value — Canadian citizens or permanent residents who aren’t members of a satellite family.
- 2% of assessed value — foreign owners and satellite families (households earning most of their income outside Canada and reporting little of it here).
Those rates are doubling. Effective January 1, 2026, the same page confirms the SVT rises to 1% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents and 3% for foreign owners and satellite families, applied to property use during the 2026 calendar year and declared in early 2027. The Province’s budget tax changes also flagged a further bump for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners in 2027. If you own a non-exempt empty property, the math gets worse every year you don’t fix the underlying vacancy.
The deadline that catches people
Every owner of residential property in a taxable area has to declare — every single year, even if you’ve claimed the same exemption five years running, and even if you live in the home full-time. The Province sends a declaration letter, and you confirm your status online or by phone.
For the 2025 tax year the declaration was due March 31, 2026, with payment due the first business day of July. Miss the declaration and the Province can assess you at the tax rate as though the property qualifies for no exemption. The fix is almost always just filing — but file late enough and you’re cutting a cheque you never owed.
Exemptions worth knowing
Most people pay nothing because an exemption applies. The big ones, per the Province’s exemptions page: it’s your principal residence, it’s tenanted for enough of the year, you’re between owners after a recent purchase, the owner is in care or has died and the estate is being settled, or the home is genuinely uninhabitable due to renovation or damage. The catch is the same as always — the exemption only counts if you declare it. An unclaimed exemption is worth zero.
City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax (the municipal one)
If your property is inside Vancouver city limits, you’ve got a second, separate tax to deal with. The City’s Empty Homes Tax targets homes left empty for more than six months of the year, and it is not gentle.
The rate is brutal by comparison
The EHT for the 2025 reference year is 3% of the property’s 2025 assessed taxable value, per the City. On a $1.2M condo, that’s roughly $36,000 — for one year of vacancy, on top of whatever SVT you owe the Province. This is the tax that makes “I’ll just leave it empty until I decide what to do” a genuinely expensive plan. If you want to see your own number before you commit to anything, run it through our Empty Home Tax calculator.
The deadline is earlier than the provincial one
The EHT declaration runs on the City’s own calendar, and it’s earlier than the SVT. The declaration for the 2025 reference year was due February 3, 2026. Same trap, harsher consequence: if you don’t declare, the City deems your property vacant and bills you the full 3% plus a $250 by-law ticket. There’s a late-declaration window — the City lets you file late by submitting a notice of complaint, with penalties stacking the longer you wait — but the deemed-vacant default does the damage automatically the moment the deadline passes.
EHT exemptions
The exemptions mirror the SVT in spirit: principal residence, a tenancy of long enough duration, owner in care, recent purchase, estate in administration, court order, or major redevelopment. The categories don’t line up perfectly between the two taxes, though, which is exactly why people get tripped up — qualifying for one exemption doesn’t automatically qualify you for the other. You declare each tax on its own terms.
The federal Underused Housing Tax — now gone
The Underused Housing Tax was a 1% federal levy on vacant or underused residential property, aimed mostly at non-resident, non-Canadian owners, in force from 2022.
In the November 2025 federal budget, Ottawa eliminated it. Per the CRA’s What has changed – Underused Housing Tax page, no UHT is payable and no UHT return is required for the 2025 calendar year or any year after. The government’s own framing was blunt: the tax was inefficient and costly to administer.
Two things to keep straight:
- 2025 and later: nothing to file, nothing to pay. Don’t pay an accountant to prepare a UHT return for 2025 — there isn’t one.
- 2022 through 2024: still live. All UHT requirements continue to apply for those years. If you were an “affected owner” (most individual Canadians were already “excluded owners” with no filing obligation after the 2024 Bill C-69 changes, but corporations, certain trusts, and non-resident owners were not), unfiled returns for 2022–2024 can still carry penalties. If you think you might have missed one of those, that’s a conversation with a tax professional, not something to ignore because the tax is being repealed going forward.
How the two remaining taxes stack on one Vancouver condo
| BC Speculation & Vacancy Tax | Vancouver Empty Homes Tax | |
|---|---|---|
| Level of government | Provincial | Municipal (City of Vancouver only) |
| Who pays (if no exemption) | All owners in taxable areas; rate varies by residency | Owners of homes empty 6+ months/year inside city limits |
| 2025-tax-year rate | 0.5% (Canadian citizens/PRs) / 2% (foreign owners & satellite families) | 3% of assessed value |
| 2026 rate | 1% / 3% | Confirm current rate with the City |
| Declaration deadline (2025) | March 31, 2026 | February 3, 2026 |
| If you don’t declare | Can be assessed with no exemption | Deemed vacant: 3% + $250 fine |
Source notes: SVT figures from the Province of BC tax rates page and SVT homepage. EHT figures from the City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax page. Verify current-year rates and deadlines with each authority before filing.
The honest takeaway from that table: an empty, non-exempt condo in downtown Vancouver owned by a foreign national could face 2% provincially and 3% from the City for the 2025 year — 5% of assessed value in vacancy taxes alone, before you get anywhere near property tax. That’s why, when I’m advising international clients, vacancy tax exposure goes in the same conversation as the foreign-buyer surcharge and closing costs. If you’re buying from outside Canada, our international buyers guide and the closing costs calculator will give you the full picture of what carrying a Vancouver property actually costs.
Key Takeaways
- Two vacancy taxes still apply in 2026, not three. The BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax (provincial) and the Vancouver Empty Homes Tax (municipal) both remain. The federal Underused Housing Tax is eliminated as of the 2025 calendar year.
- Both can hit the same Vancouver home. Inside city limits, an empty non-exempt property can owe SVT and EHT for the same year — they’re not coordinated and they don’t offset each other.
- The deadlines are different and the EHT comes first. EHT was due February 3, 2026; SVT was due March 31, 2026. Mark both.
- Forgetting to declare is the real trap. Most owners owe nothing because of an exemption — but the exemption only counts if you file. Silence gets you deemed vacant and taxed at the top rate.
- Rates are climbing. SVT doubles to 1% / 3% for the 2026 tax year. Leaving a home empty “for now” gets more expensive every cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I still have to file the federal Underused Housing Tax return?
No — not for 2025 or any year after. The 2025 federal budget eliminated the UHT, so no return is required and no tax is payable for the 2025 calendar year onward. Years 2022 through 2024 still apply, so unfiled returns for those years can still carry penalties for affected owners.
Can both the BC Speculation Tax and the Vancouver Empty Homes Tax apply to the same condo?
Yes. They’re separate taxes from separate governments. If a Vancouver condo sits empty without a valid exemption, the Province can levy the SVT and the City can levy the EHT on the same property in the same year. You declare each one on its own form, by its own deadline.
What happens if I forget to declare?
For the EHT, the City deems your property vacant and bills the full 3% plus a $250 fine. For the SVT, the Province can assess you as though no exemption applies. In both cases the damage comes from not declaring, not from the home being empty — so file even if you’re late.
What’s the Empty Homes Tax rate for 2025?
The City of Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax for the 2025 reference year is 3% of the property’s 2025 assessed taxable value. On a $1.2M home that’s roughly $36,000 for a single year of vacancy. Confirm the current rate with the City before filing, as municipal rates can change year to year.
Sources
- City of Vancouver — Empty Homes Tax
- Province of BC — Speculation and Vacancy Tax (homepage)
- Province of BC — Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates
- Province of BC — SVT taxable areas
- Province of BC — SVT exemptions
- Canada.ca — What has changed: Underused Housing Tax
- Province of BC — Declaring speculation and vacancy tax (news release)
Data verified June 2026. Tax rules change — confirm current figures with the relevant authority before filing or making decisions. This is general information, not tax advice.
Next Steps: Work with Rain City Properties
Vacancy taxes turn an empty Vancouver property from a holding pattern into a real annual cost, and the smart move is usually to decide what the home is actually for — sell it, rent it, or qualify it for an exemption — before another declaration cycle comes around. I’ve spent 20 years helping owners run exactly that math, whether the answer is listing the place, finding a tenant, or restructuring an estate’s holdings. If you’ve got a property sitting empty and you’re not sure what it’s costing you or what to do with it, let’s look at the numbers together.
Contact Greyden Douglas directly at (604) 218-2289 or book a call to discuss your Vancouver real estate goals.
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