Purchasing Property in Canada

How can foreigner buy propery in Canada?

The Canadian system however does not have special legislation that regulates about the acquisition of Canadian property by a foreigner. Most of the province of Canada treat foreign buyers the same as local resident though the property taxes on on the purchase of property vary from state to state.

But there are both federal laws, such as the Investment Canada Act and the Competition Act, and provincial laws, which vary by province, which may restrict the ownership of real estate by non-residents. Some provinces do not have any direct restrictions, but may impose taxes, registration and reporting requirements.

For example, Ontario, Québec and British Columbia require foreign entities to obtain a licence to own and operate real estate. To deal with rapidly rising housing prices, British Columbia recently enacted a 15% transfer tax on foreign persons and entities that purchase residential property in Greater Vancouver Regional District.

In Alberta, the Agricultural and Recreational Land Ownership Act restricts non-Canadians, including non-Canadian corporations and partnerships, from acquiring controlled land, which generally refers to large parcels of land outside of urban areas, such as farm land or rural recreational land. The provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba also restrict ownership of real estate by non-residents.

Legislation in Ontario coming into effect at the end of 2016 requires new Ontario corporations to maintain a register of their ownership interests in Ontario real property, which requirement will apply to all existing Ontario corporations by December 2018.[1]

The Land titles act and the Registry act  of Canada are the legislation which regulates the buying of land by canadians as well as non Canadians.

The Land titles Act and the registry act are the two legislations which governs the land registration system of Canada. Both the Canadians and non Canadians are eligible to buy the land under these legislation. The land titles act is preety much old and outdates as compared to registry act .

the Registry Act   is simply a document depository system from which lawyers have historically provided a title opinion after completing a 40 year search of title.  Whereas the land titles act is a government certified regime that permits electronic registration .

Non residents of Canada can buy the property in the same manner as any other resident of Canada will buy the property but the various states of Canada has imposed no of restriction to the amount of land the foreigner can buy in there states .The main issue while buying property an Canada is the imposition of higher taxes property taxes  by the states so as to control and restrict the foreign investment in the country and which is making difficult for the permanent residents of the country to buy property on these rights

In the State of Ontario the NSRT act  enacted on the 20 april 2017  plays an important role in buying property in the states as well as lays down the requirements of transfer of land to the new owner and the taxes to be paid by the foreigners. This Non Speculation Resident Tax Act {NSRT} is a 15 per cent tax on the purchase or acquisition of an interest in residential property located in the Canada by individuals who are not citizens or permanent residents of Canada or by foreign corporations (foreign entities) and taxable trustees.

[1] https://www.osler.com/osler/media/Osler/reports/real-estate/Real-Estate-Law-in-Canada-2017.pdf