How much is the home owner grant in BC, and do I qualify?

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Up to $570 off the property tax on the home you live in, $770 in the northern and rural area in 2026, and more at 65 or older, for homes assessed at $2,075,000 or less; you apply for it each year. The home owner grant is the Province's discount on the yearly property tax for the home you live in. It isn't automatic: one owner applies each year, online or by phone, and the grant counts as a payment toward that year's bill. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. How much: In 2026 the regular grant is $570, and $770 in the northern and rural area. The additional grant, instead of the regular one, is $845 ($1045 in the northern and rural area) for an owner 65 or older in the year, a veteran, a person with a disability or one living with a spouse or relative with a disability. From January 1, 2027 the northern and rural $200 ends, so the regular grant is $570 and the seniors' $845 everywhere. The northern and rural area: Every property outside the Capital, Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regional districts, in the Province's own definition: a Kamloops, Kelowna or Prince George home counts, a Victoria, Surrey or Chilliwack one doesn't. The threshold: The full grant goes to homes assessed at $2,075,000 or less in 2026; above that it shrinks by $5 for each $1,000, so the regular grant is nothing over $2,189,000 ($2,229,000 in the northern and rural area) and the additional grant over $2,244,000 ($2,284,000). The Province sets the threshold each year. A senior over it with an adjusted net income of $32,000 or less may get a low income supplement. Who qualifies: A registered owner (or the spouse or relative of an owner who has died) who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, lives in BC and lives in the home as their principal residence: where they pay bills and get mail, and generally the address on their tax return, MSP and driver's licence. A person has one principal residence, and an owner of two homes can't choose which. It must be a home assessed and taxed as an improvement: a house, strata unit, townhouse, manufactured or modular home, not bare land. Partitioning: A property over the threshold with more than one home on it, each with its own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living room (a laneway home, the units of a duplex to fourplex), can apply to have its value divided by the number of homes, which may bring the owner's share under the threshold. A suite inside the house doesn't count as a second home. The tax left to pay: An owner must still pay at least $350 in property tax after the regular grant, or $100 after the additional grant, so the Province may cut the grant to leave that much on the bill. Applying: Apply every year, online on eTaxBC (the roll number and jurisdiction from the tax notice), by phone or at a Service BC office; anyone with the owner's permission can apply for them, and a bank that pays the taxes won't. Apply after the notice comes and before the due date: the grant is a payment, so applying late leaves the unpaid part open to the late penalty. The last day is December 31 of the year, and last year's grant can be claimed then too if the owner qualified on December 31 and nobody claimed it. Applications are audited for up to 7 years. Buying or selling: Only one grant is paid on a property each year. A buyer can claim it in the year they buy if the seller didn't claim it on that property and the buyer didn't get one elsewhere that year, and is living there when they apply. Who keeps the benefit of a grant the seller claimed is settled in the statement of adjustments at completion (our reading). First Nation and rural taxes: In a municipality the grant comes off the council's tax notice; in an electoral area, off the Province's. On land where a First Nation collects the property tax, the First Nation runs its own equivalent: ask it.

How much is the home owner grant in BC, and do I qualify?

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