Cooling-off period for home buyers in Around Town

March 31, 2022

Your Weekly Construction Briefing

According to the province, more than 70 per cent of offers in B.C. over the past year may have been made without conditions.

BC’s competitive housing market means many home-buyers are making offers without conditions designed to protect their interests.

Proposed amendments to the Property Law Act this year are expected to provide a cooling-off period for buyers to change their minds after an accepted offer to purchase. The proposal is a response to concerns that the intensely competitive market in some parts of the province is forcing buyers to submit offers on a home without basic conditions intended to protect their interests

The proposed law would be the first of its kind in Canada, but the province has already introduced a similar, seven-day cooling off period for pre-construction condominium sales. In addition the province government has already introduced a string of measures – the vacancy tax, speculation tax and foreign buyers’ tax – designed to dampen the housing market.

Details – including the amount of time that the cooling-off period will last, and what financial penalties will come with retracting an offer – are expected to be set by regulation later this spring. The changes are proposed to include both resale properties and newly built homes.  

Source: Globe and Mail

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