The many Hong Kong residents who own houses, condominiums or apartment buildings in Vancouver or elsewhere in British Columbia are going to find their tax bills substantially higher this year.
The British Columbia Assessment Authority, which estimates the value of all property in the Canadian province, has served notice that total assessments this year will on average be 17 per cent higher than last year.
Unless individual municipalities move to lower the tax rate, the higher assessment will mean higher tax revenues across the province.
The tax burden will fall especially heavily on Hong Kong residents and other absentee owners because they will not be eligible for a provincial 'homeowner's grant' designed to cushion the burden of property taxes.
The grant is not paid to absentee owners, so Hong Kong owners will get no shelter from a 20 per cent to 35 per cent increase in their property taxes.
David Baxter, executive director of Vancouver's Urban Futures Institute, said the good news about the increased assessment was that homeowners were seeing a dramatic increase in the value of their houses.