My mum’s family is from Edmonton and I had the fortune of going to the University of Alberta in Edmonton for 10 years. Although I enjoyed the great people I met in Alberta, I was always drawn to come back home to Kelowna.
Kelowna Real Estate has a special allure for many Alberta buyers for many good reasons, a few of them include:
- Kelowna is a days drive and a very quick flight for most Albertans;
- Kelowna has four wonderful seasons with an early spring and a late fall golf season;
- Kelowna’s vineyards are the perfect complement to Alberta beef;
- Kelowna’s beaches are hot in the summer and our mountains are powdery soft in the winter;
- Kelowna’s real estate is an affordable investment in Canadian real estate that Albertans can enjoy year round;
There are are few important differences between BC real estate and AB real estate that most Albertans should know when they are contemplating a quick hop over to Kelowna:
- Most of lands in British Columbia are untitled as Crown Lands, where as most Alberta has been surveyed into quarter sections;
- Real Property Reports or consolidated survey plans are not commonly done on a residential home purchase;
- Property Transfer Tax is payable on almost every home transaction (1% of the first 200k and 2% of the remainder);
- Principal residents get a reduction in property taxes, this does not apply to persons who do not reside in BC (or own revenue properties).
- Condominiums are called Strata Corporations here and Strata Depreciation Reports are very new to BC law (therefore not many strata corporations have done them yet)
- If you are planning on being a residential landlord, BC Residential Tenancy Act is very tenant friendly, and required that Landlords strictly comply with the legislation.
- Our land title system has had immediately electronic registration for many years now, and for residential real estate this means files close and money is transferred on the Closing Date with no escrow period.
Written by Kelowna Real Estate Lawyer Peter Borszcz.