[drtom]

I am currently looking into buying a house in BC and the only tax there is is property tax. The latter is dependent on the city and only a portion of this goes to the provincial Government. In fact, there is a grant from the BC Government if this were my primary residence. If I used that grant (which I of course can't but you could), the city I am looking at levies a tax of 1.043% of the property value. Pretty sweet deal, if you asked me.

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

ARE you AMERICAN...?

The only GRANT that we are allowed for first time buyers is not a grant. We as Canadians have something called the RRSP (Retirement savings plan). This RRSP can only be touched after you retire and is subject to taxes. The only other way you can have access to this money is if you are a first time buyer of a house and you are permitted to remove 20000$ without being taxed on it, BUT, there is a catch, YOU MUST REPAY this money within 13 years or a minimum of 1500$ per year.

You are lucky to pay only 1% property taxes, it depends the province/area..we pay here about 2 - 2.5 property taxes per year for as long as we own the property + school taxes of 1/2% per year