Background Resources Advocacy Last updated: September 25, 2020 Ensuring REALTORS® have the resources to meet anti-money laundering requirements is an important step towards keeping money from criminal activity out of BC’s housing market. BCREA has created this dedicated page to help Realtors access BCREA’s anti-money laundering resources. Throughout the fall, we’ll add to these resources …
BCREA’s Recommendations for the Next Provincial Government With British Columbians being asked to head to the polls on October 24, BCREA is advocating with all parties to ensure that market housing affordability is a cornerstone of the province’s COVID-19 economic recovery plan. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made market housing affordability inequities more apparent than ever,” …
On September 23, Governor General Julie Payette presented the Speech From the Throne, providing an overview of many programs the government has enacted in the last six months as well as providing an outline of the government’s upcoming agenda. Several of the announcements will impact real estate in BC. On market housing, the government promised …
As of August 20, 2020, REALTORS® have yet another reason to maintain high standards of hygiene and safety. Schedule 1 of the BC Workers Compensation Act includes a new presumption for infections caused by communicable viral pathogens, such as COVID-19, that are the subject of a Public Health Act notice or a declared state of …
As of October 1, 2020, all BC companies must maintain transparency registers in their offices along with their other corporate records. A transparency register is a list of all significant individuals connected to the company and the requirement applies to real estate brokerages and personal real estate corporations. To get started, the BC Government recommends …
For several months, BCREA and other stakeholders have drawn the government’s attention to significant increases in the cost of strata property insurance in BC. This is a complex issue and, while it can’t be solved quickly, actions are underway. Initial research findingsThe BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), BC’s financial services regulator, published a brief interim …
In August, BCREA interviewed the Pembina Institute’s director for buildings and urban solutions, Tom-Pierre Frappé-Sénéclauze, to understand their perspective on making homes and buildings in BC low carbon, healthy and resilient. Tom-Pierre was a coauthor of a July submission sent to the BC Government, “Accelerating BC’s economic recovery through building retrofits.” Closely aligned with BCREA’s …
The COVID-19 Reopening Dashboard allows readers to monitor the evolution of the BC economy as the province gradually reopens. The dashboard focuses on the sectors and activities that have been most significantly impacted by the pandemic and the province’s subsequent state of emergency. The most recent update shows that home sales have more than fully …
The Province of BC has changed the Strata Property Act and the Financial Institutions Act in response to the recent escalation of insurance premiums and deductibles. In a communication to Strata Managers, the Real Estate Council of BC (RECBC) highlighted that now: Strata corporations are required to inform owners as soon as it is feasible …
BCREA conducted a follow-up survey on the impacts of COVID-19 faced by REALTORS®. The survey was completed by 1,950 Realtors from all boards between July 13 and July 20. A quarter of Realtors (26 per cent) continue to report no income from transactions since the end of May. Respondents’ most common reason for not receiving …