Parking will become costlier in Greater Vancouver’s commercial lots once the latest provincial budget act is passed into law. The newly tabled 2025 British Columbia budget includes a 5 per cent boost to the TransLink parking tax, pushing it up to 29 per cent in off-street commercial facilities located within the transportation authority’s service area, which encompasses urban centres throughout B.C.’s south coast.
Collected revenue is channelled to transit and road operations in that region. Parking patrons pay the tax on hourly, daily, weekly and monthly rates or any other flat-rate amount, while parking operators remit it to the provincial government at quarterly to annual intervals depending on the volume garnered. On-street parking, assigned residential parking spaces and long-term spots (at least 28 consecutive days) reserved for commercial fleet vehicles are exempt from the tax.
The B.C. government is also projecting an extra $47 million in revenue for 2026 after increases in the vacant unit tax kick in Jan. 1 next year. That tax currently applies within 59 municipal jurisdictions, as well as lands affiliated with designated universities, in situations where non-principal residential properties are vacant for more than six months of the year (with some allowable exceptions).
As of Jan. 1, 2026, tax rates will increase from 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of assessed value for property owners who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada, and from 2 per cent to 3 per cent of assessed value for foreign owners or so-called untaxed worldwide owners who derive more income from outside Canada than their domestic earnings in a given year.
“Increasing speculation and vacancy tax rates will help ensure residential properties are used as homes rather than investments,” the budget document maintains. “The revenue collected through the tax supports affordable housing in the areas where the tax applies.”
It’s estimated that only about 1 per cent of B.C.’s population is subject to the tax. Beginning in 2026, the non-refundable tax credit that some of those taxpayers may receive will increase from a maximum of $2,000 to a maximum of $4,000.
