A question I have started getting again: can someone who is not Canadian buy a house in Langley or South Surrey. Today, mostly no. That is scheduled to change on January 1, 2027, and what people assume comes with the change is the expensive part.
The federal ban is not being renewed by anyone. It ends on its own. Section 237(2) of the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 repeals the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act on "the fourth anniversary of the day on which section 235 comes into force", and section 237(1) puts that day at January 1, 2023. The original wording said second anniversary, which is how the first expiry landed in 2025. A 2024 amendment changed it to fourth. On the Justice Laws consolidation the repeal is still listed as not in force, so the ban is live as I write this.
What the ban covers while it is still here
Section 4(1) is short: "it is prohibited for a non-Canadian to purchase, directly or indirectly, any residential property." A non-Canadian is an individual who is not a citizen, a permanent resident or a person registered under the Indian Act, plus corporations incorporated outside Canada and private Canadian corporations controlled by either. The regulations put control at 10% of equity value, 10% of the votes, or control in fact. The fine runs to $10,000 and a court can order a sale, though the purchase itself stays valid.
Geography decides whether it bites at all. The regulations carve out property outside a census metropolitan area or a census agglomeration. Statistics Canada's delineation table for the Vancouver census metropolitan area lists Surrey, White Rock, Langley city and Langley district municipality among its 39 census subdivisions. All four are in, and so is the whole Township, acreages in Otter and Glen Valley included. There is no rural carve out in this market.
The three unit line, which matters more in Langley now
"Residential property" in section 2 means a detached house or similar building "containing not more than three dwelling units", or a separately titled unit such as a rowhouse or condominium. A dwelling unit has private kitchen facilities, a private bath and a private living area.
Count the units and the answer can flip. A fourplex is not residential property under the Act, so a non-Canadian can buy one now. That is no longer an edge case because Langley's small scale multi unit housing rules put four units on a large share of single family lots. A house with a basement suite and a garden suite is three units, so it sits inside the Act. Add the fourth and the building drops out. Strata title flips it back, since each separately owned unit is caught under paragraph (b).
Who can already buy
The exceptions are narrower than people expect. The one that comes up most here is work. A temporary resident holding a work permit, or authorized to work under section 186 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, can buy if the permit has 183 days or more of validity left on the purchase date and they have not already used the exception. There is no price cap. There used to be, repealed in 2023, and I still see it quoted.
Students are much tighter: enrolled at a designated learning institution, five years of filed tax returns, 244 days of physical presence in Canada in each of those five calendar years, a price no higher than $500,000, and no more than one property. In this market that cap rules out almost everything.
Two more. A non-Canadian buying with a spouse or common law partner who is a citizen, a permanent resident or an exempt non-Canadian is outside the ban, and buying for development is not a purchase at all.
What does not lapse on January 1
The provincial additional property transfer tax is 20% of the fair market value of a foreign buyer's proportionate share, and it applies in five named regions. One is the Metro Vancouver Regional District, covering Surrey, White Rock and both Langleys. Nothing in the federal repeal touches it.
It also catches people the ban never caught. The Property Transfer Tax Act takes "foreign national" from the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, meaning anyone who is not a citizen or a permanent resident. So a work permit holder with four years left on the permit can legally buy in Willoughby today under the federal exception, and still owes the 20%.
On a $1.200M townhouse the general property transfer tax is $22,000, being 1% on the first $200,000 and 2% on the rest, since the 3% band starts above $2.000M. The additional tax on the same purchase is $240,000, so $262,000 is due at the land title office. The general tax on its own is set out in what you pay in BC property transfer tax.
Two things soften it. The B.C. Provincial Nominee exemption applies to a confirmed nominee buying as an individual, for their principal residence, once, and family members who are also foreign nationals do not get it automatically. There is also a refund if you become a permanent resident or a citizen within one year of registration, moved in within 92 days, and then lived there a full continuous year. Apply after the first anniversary of moving in and before 18 months from registration. Miss either end and the refund is gone.
On farm class land used as the owner's or the farmer's dwelling, the additional tax reaches the residential improvement plus half a hectare rather than the whole parcel, which matters on a Langley acreage. On mixed class property it reaches the residential portion only.
What goes up on the same day
The speculation and vacancy tax rate for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners is 3% of assessed value for 2026 and 4% for 2027. Canadian citizens and permanent residents pay 1% in both years. So January 1, 2027 is both the day the federal ban is scheduled to lapse and the day the provincial annual rate on a foreign owner rises by a quarter. On a $1.200M assessment that is $48,000 a year, for every year the home is neither occupied nor tenanted. The occupancy test and the exemption list are in the speculation and vacancy tax in Langley and White Rock.
One tax that really is gone
The federal underused housing tax is the exception to all of this. Section 1.1 of the Underused Housing Tax Act now says no tax is payable "for 2025 and subsequent calendar years", and section 6.1 removes the filing requirement. Both were added by S.C. 2026, c. 3. The 2022 to 2024 years still stand, so an owner who never filed has something to clean up, but there is nothing to file going forward. Plenty of advice pages still list it as a live annual cost.
What I would tell someone planning around this
If you are not a citizen or a permanent resident, the federal ban was never the main number. It is a timing problem. The 20% is the money, and it is not going anywhere. I would still not sign in December assuming the ban lifts cleanly on New Year's Day, because Parliament amended that date once already and in the other direction.
If you hold through a company, the two tests differ. Federally, 10% of equity value or of the votes makes a Canadian company non-Canadian. The provincial definition turns on control and on whether the shares are listed on a Canadian exchange. Have both read before the structure is set.
And the one most often missed: the additional tax is charged on your proportionate share as registered on title. Putting a non-resident parent on title for a quarter of a South Surrey house is 20% of that quarter.
If you are buying in Langley, South Surrey or White Rock and someone in the family is not Canadian, call me before the offer goes in. None of this is legal or tax advice, and it is a file where a lawyer or notary earns the fee.
Sources
At laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, current to September 30, 2026: the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, sections 2, 4, 6 and 7, and its Amendments Not in Force page; Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, section 237, as amended by 2024, c. 17, s. 149; SOR/2022-250, sections 1, 3, 4 and 5, with the worker price cap repealed by SOR/2023-66; and Underused Housing Tax Act sections 1.1 and 6.1. CMHC's page on the Act for the February 4, 2024 extension. Statistics Canada table 92F0138M for the Vancouver census metropolitan area subdivisions. At www2.gov.bc.ca: the additional property transfer tax page and its refunds page, the property transfer tax rate brackets, and the speculation and vacancy tax rates page updated July 3, 2026. Property Transfer Tax Act section 2.01, current to October 27, 2026, at bclaws.gov.bc.ca. Checked November 1, 2026.