Foreign Property Purchase Ban Ends Jan 1 2027

Most non-Canadians have been blocked from buying residential property in Canada’s larger urban areas, including both Kelowna and Vernon

October 26 2026 -The federal prohibition that has blocked most non-Canadians from buying residential property in Canada’s larger urban areas, including both Kelowna and Vernon, is scheduled to expire on January 1, 2027.

Since January 2023 the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act has applied in Kelowna (a Census Metropolitan Area, a Statistics Canada designation for a large urban centre of at least 100,000 people) and Vernon (a Census Agglomeration, a smaller urban centre of at least 10,000 people).

The ban bars non-citizens and non-permanent residents, with limited exceptions, from purchasing homes of three units or fewer.

The measure was extended in 2024 to the current end date in 2027.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has said the government is still reviewing whether to let it lapse, extend it, or replace it with a narrower rule.

Two separate foreign-buyer restrictions currently affect Kelowna and Vernon. The federal ban is temporary and covers both.

British Columbia’s 20 per cent Additional Property Transfer Tax is permanent and applies only in five designated regional districts: Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital (Victoria area), Nanaimo, and Central Okanagan (Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland).

The tax was expanded to those areas in 2018.

Vernon is in the Regional District of North Okanagan, which was never added to the list, so the 20 per cent surcharge for non-Canadian buyers does not apply there.

If the federal ban is not extended, the difference between the two markets becomes sharper.

In Kelowna a non-Canadian would still face the 20 per cent provincial tax on top of the regular property transfer tax, an extra $200,000 on a $1-million purchase.

In Vernon that provincial surcharge does not exist, so the end of the federal ban would remove the main legal barrier to foreign purchases.

Local realtors have long described pure foreign buyers as a small share of Okanagan demand, both before and after the 2023 ban. Any increase after January 2027 is expected to be modest and concentrated in higher-end or recreational properties.

The practical change is that Vernon would move from being fully restricted to facing only the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (which applies in both cities and charges higher annual rates to foreign owners), while Kelowna would continue to operate under the permanent 20 per cent tax.

Foreign Property Purchase Ban Ends Jan 1 2027, Vernon Kelowna Real estate