getoutofbritainquick

What made you move back? We are thinking the same as soon as our son finishes High School. Hope to move from Victoria to Cornwall.

DigitalGhost

I just want to point out how funny that post looks when paired with your username.

R I C H

Ageing mother in law that's needing some care - she's no longer able to make the journey to BC unaided and the parental sponsorship process has too many uncertainties for her.

We've moved back to the north Cotswolds, and after 14 years away are finding the cost of living generally lower than the interior of BC and it's nice to be back close to long time friends and family. Far less isolating in terms of things to do/see and career opportunities too.

getoutofbritainquick

We have been in Canada 11 years and left the UK when it was rapidly heading south. We always planned to live in the Okanagan but for one reason or another never made it there. We moved to Victoria about 5 years ago but have become so disappointed with Canada and have no confidence in the leadership no matter what political party is in power. The seems to be no concept of planning or financial control here. Its run by the few for the few. They are developing the crap out of the place building the most cheap and ugly condos everywhere (I thought Surrey was bad until we moved to the Island). There is virtually no infrastructure planning and traffic is becoming a big problem. The cost of living is rising exponentially in Victoria, ICBC up 50% in 3 years, Property tax up 50% in 3 years, water up 42% in 4 years, sewage up 500% over 5 years, Hydro up 120% over 10 years and just everything going up in double digits each year. My wife and I have very good jobs but how an earth anyone can survive in BC is beyond me. Crazy politics. I would strongly advise anyone considering moving to BC seriously do their research to see if they can survive here. We have kept most of our bills since first arriving in BC and just about everything has gone up over 100% in 11 years. Salaries are virtually static, salary up 0.5%, 0.3% and 1% over past 8 years. On the positive side we have made a fortune on our property and makes moving back to the UK very viable. Just to put it in perspective our friends in South Langley have just been paid $4 million to vacate their tare-down in Brookswood! Our other friends across the road had an Asian realtor knocked on his door the other week and offered him $4 million for his house he paid $1.4 million a couple of years ago. We went back to the UK last year for a few weeks and for the first time in many years we did not want to return to BC. We are seriously considering retiring to Cornwall or Devon which we found much more affordable compared to BC. I cannot see how pensioners on a fixed income can possibly survive in BC. Just about every reason we moved here no longer applies and we are sick and tired of the nepotism which seems to abound here. My wife and I both work for Healthcare or Crown corporations and have been stunned but what we see day by day. The incompetence, the lazyness, unjustified sickness, unwilling to change, entitlement, nepotism, and so on. Its ground us down over the years and we cannot wait for retirement. We have to wait for are youngest to complete high school then we are planning to move back to the UK.

YoshiPal2010

While I am no fan of Canada, either, I would be very reluctant to return to the UK. The country has a lot of problems similar to those in Canada. And house prices are not exactly a bargain. As someone who lived in Devon for many years, before coming to Canada, I can assure you that a rural idyll is not a great bet for someone in their retirement. There is a widespread shortage of GPs, transport links are out-dated or non-existent and, frankly, the people from "up the line" have ruined any local flavour there may have been. Now I will admit that living in Novs Scotia, we have the same set of problems, but spending many thousands of dollars to move back, just to get the same set of problems, would seem to be a little counterproductive/. ,

Siouxie

I've moved these posts to a thread of their own, rather than hijacking a thread asking for help on finding an international moving company.

Shard

Hello getoutofbcquick

Doesn't the rise in property tax reflect the rise in property value?

Is it the provincial politics that you are most wound up about or that in your respective workplaces?

scilly

what will your children think?

Do they want to move back to a country they really don't know? Will they want to leave all their friends behind and face the task of having to make new ones.

Will they settle in the UK?

Are you willing to have them stay here?


Shard is quite correct ...... the rise in property taxes is due entirely to the rise in property value. If your property was not now assessed at a higher amount you would not be paying high property tax, but equally you would not be having a "windfall" in the sale of your house, nor would your friends in Surrey

The value of your property has probably risen much much more than the 50% rise in the property tax.

You cain't have one without the other .......... as a famous song has it!

jandro

Where I live a low level apartment building was being built with what looked like the flimsiest chipboard I've ever seen. Of course this chipboard frame was covered with finishings to make it look nice but I can't imagine the building lasting a long time. I see this use of chipboard frame used in most housing construction around here.

dbd33

I don't think this view is reasonable and I would expect you to be receptive to the idea that tying property taxes to property values is a destructive policy in a rising market. What happens is that people who have lived in a place for decades and own their houses are forced to move because the nominal value of the house, and so the cost of the related taxes, has gone through the roof and they cannot afford to pay. Such a policy benefits newcomers and, depending on the treatment of unoccupied properties, may especially benefit non-resident newcomers.

scilly

I almost cannot believe this ......... but I actually agree with you about this part of your posting!

However, that is the system that is in place in BC, and has been for ever, so far as I know.

Therefore, when talking about current happenings, it is true that the higher the property assessment the higher will be your property tax. But you can't complain that your property tax is too high when you are at the same time crowing about how much money you have made by selling your house!

But do please note that the property tax is tied to the property ASSESSMENT, which is determined by about September in BC, and is usually determined at a distance by looking at how much houses have sold for in the previous 12 months.

In Vancouver, that actually means how much the LAND portion of the property sold for more than the value of the house built upon it. My house is now assessed at exactly what we paid for house and land back in 1972.

Most houses are currently selling for more than the assessed value, so the seller is making even more of a profit.

What happens now of course to people who have owned their homes for decades and do not pass it on to a family member is usually one of two options ......

a) they defer their property taxes, and they are added as a lien against the property. They stay in their house, but when the property is sold at some time in the future, the lien is the first thing that has to be paid before any money goes to the seller or the estate.

b) they sell their house at say $3 million, and it is almost immediately demolished and a new modern much bigger house is built, that sells for somewhere between $4 and $5 million.

Very very few of the type of houses that have been lived in for decades by one owner actually survive the selling ...... and this doesn't help the local buyer one tiny iota.

scrubbedexpat091

And that is how California ended up with prop 13 which helps homeowners, but does hinder local governments who rely more heavily on the state government for funding.

https://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Prop13.pdf

Almost Canadian

On the assumption that property taxes are necessary to pay for services provide by the entity that is charging them, increasing the taxes simply by linking them directly to the value of the property, without any correlation between the increased cost of the services, is simply bullshit. The value of one's property doesn't assist one to pay the taxes if one is not intending to realise the capital gain one may have made.

Tangram

Loved living in the Cotswolds, although it was only 12 months before moving here. Would move back in an instant.

Shard

In general I agree.

Poll tax, perhaps?