Inside the Industry Efforts to Amend the Foreign Buyer Ban

, Partners at Dentons Canada LLP with hands-on experience working with a variety of real estate clients, tell STOREYS that they largely heard the same gripes with the regulations, including the rollout.

As the ramifications of the regulations became clearer, what needed to be changed also came into focus. Numerous industry groups submitted formal feedback to the government.

All the sources STOREYS spoke to say that the government had previously signaled, but not confirmed, that changes were likely coming. Kassian and Jagger, of Dentons Canada LLP, said that it was “widely expected” but that the timing of the announcement may have been a surprise to many, which Savoie and Wilkes both confirmed.

The concern that drew some of the most attention prior to the changes was the 3% foreign control threshold, which has now been upped to 10%. The general consensus regarding this change appears to be that while the development industry would have preferred no threshold at all, they also recognize that 10% is better than 3%, and are content with the overall set of amendments, some of which render the threshold less of an issue.

Asked which of the four changes was the biggest win for the development industry, Lewis, Kassian, Jagger, Savoie, and Wilkes all pointed to the development purposes exemption, which now allows non-Canadian entities to purchase land for the purposes of development, after the original regulations only allowed this for publicly-traded corporations.

Kassian and Jagger say that they aren’t aware of any current specific industry efforts on this front, but that these flaws can be resolved with further amendments, or more guidance from the government. Separately, Lewis said producing more “binding interpretative guidance on which the sector can rely definitely going forward” would be welcome and could also benefit the lending community.

Canada Canada Latest News, Canada Canada Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Grocery code to increase ‘fair and ethical dealing’ across industry, draft report saysThe industry committee was established in response to contentious fees being charged to suppliers by large grocery retailers How much government is too much government? Can't wait to hear how Galen and the other crooks use this as an excuse to gouge customers even harder!
Source: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Read more »

Grocery code to increase 'fair and ethical dealing' industry, draft report says - BNN BloombergAn industry group set up to hammer out a Canadian grocery code of conduct is getting closer to a final document, even as the way its terms will be enforced remains unclear.
Source: BNNBloomberg - 🏆 83. / 50 Read more »