Principal Residence Exemption BC: Save $100K+ in Capital Gains Tax
The Principal Residence Exemption shelters BC homeowners from capital gains tax when they sell. Here's how the T2091 form, plus-one rule, and 45(2) election work in 2026, plus the BC-specific traps that can shrink your exemption.
The Principal Residence Exemption (PRE) is what stops a BC homeowner from owing capital gains tax when they sell their home. With the Greater Vancouver detached median at $2,150,000 and many longtime owners sitting on $1M-plus unrealized gains, the PRE is often the largest tax break a BC household will ever claim. The rules are simple on the surface, then get tricky fast once a basement suite, a year abroad, or a second cabin enters the picture. This guide walks through what the CRA accepts, how to claim it on your return, and the common situations where the exemption gets reduced or denied.
What this guide covers: eligibility, the T2091 form, partial exemptions, change in use, and the BC-specific traps to watch for.
What the Principal Residence Exemption Does
When you sell a property in Canada at a profit, the gain is normally a capital gain and half of it is taxable. The PRE shelters that gain, fully or partially, for any year the home qualified as your principal residence. Sell a Burnaby townhouse you lived in for ten years for $400,000 more than you paid, and the PRE generally wipes the tax bill to zero.
It is a federal exemption under the Income Tax Act, not a BC program. The BC Home Flipping Tax and the federal anti-flipping rule are separate, and the PRE does not protect you from either if you owned the home for less than 365 days. Those two rules tax the gain as business income, where the PRE does not apply at all.
What Counts as a Principal Residence
CRA's definition is broader than most people expect. A principal residence can be a detached house, a condo, a townhouse, a mobile home, a houseboat, or even a leasehold interest, as long as four conditions are met:
You own it. Sole, joint, or co-ownership all qualify.
You, your spouse or common-law partner, or your child ordinarily inhabited it at some point during the year. Ordinarily inhabited is a low bar. Even short stays each year can count.
You designate it as your principal residence on your tax return for that year.
The property sits on land of half a hectare or less (about 1.24 acres). Larger lots can still qualify if the extra land is necessary to use and enjoy the home, which is where rural BC properties often run into CRA scrutiny.
One unit per family, per year. Since the early 1980s a couple can only designate one property between them in a given year. Two homes, one cottage in Whistler and one house in Vancouver, cannot both be principal residences for the same calendar year.
How to Claim It: Form T2091
Thoughts on this article?
Since 2016 the sale of a principal residence must be reported, even when the entire gain is exempt. Skipping the report can cost you the exemption entirely and trigger a late designation penalty of $100 per month, up to $8,000.
The mechanics on your T1 return:
Schedule 3: report the disposition on the principal residence section. You enter the year of acquisition, proceeds, address, and the designation years.
Form T2091(IND): required when the home was not your principal residence for every year you owned it, or when you owned more than one property during the ownership period. This is where the partial exemption gets calculated.
Form T1255: the equivalent form when the property was owned by a deceased person and the executor is filing the final return.
If the home was your principal residence for every year you owned it and you owned no other home in those years, you do not file T2091. You only complete the Schedule 3 designation. Most straightforward BC home sales fall in this bucket.
The Plus-One Rule
The PRE formula adds one extra year to your designation count automatically. The math: (years designated + 1) divided by years owned, multiplied by the gain, equals the exempt portion.
The plus-one matters when you sell one home and buy another in the same year. Both properties were technically principal residences in that overlap year, but you can only designate one. The plus-one absorbs the overlap so neither sale gets penalized for it. Couples who upgrade from a Surrey townhouse to a North Vancouver house in the same calendar year benefit from this without doing anything extra.
Partial Exemptions: When Part of the Gain Is Taxable
The full exemption only applies when the home was your principal residence for every year of ownership. Any year it was something else, a rental, a vacant investment property, a U.S. residence while you lived abroad, reduces the exempt portion.
Example. You bought a Vancouver condo in 2010 for $500,000 and sold it in 2026 for $1,200,000. That is a $700,000 gain over 16 years of ownership. Lived in it 2010 to 2018 (9 years), rented it 2019 to 2025 (7 years), then moved back in for 2026. Designation years: 9 plus 1 (move-in year) plus 1 (plus-one rule) equals 11. Exempt portion: 11 divided by 16, times $700,000, equals $481,250 sheltered. The remaining $218,750 is the capital gain. Half of that, $109,375, is added to your taxable income for 2026.
Change in Use: The Rule That Catches BC Owners
A change in use happens when you stop living in your home and start renting it out, or vice versa. CRA treats it as a deemed disposition. You are taxed as if you sold the home at fair market value on the change date and immediately bought it back at the same price. Future gain accrues against the new cost base.
This is where a lot of BC homeowners get blindsided. You move out of your East Vancouver house, rent it for three years while you live in Toronto, then sell. Without an election, you triggered a deemed sale the day you started renting. Three years of appreciation are now taxable because the home was a rental during that stretch.
The 45(2) Election: Pretend You Never Left
Subsection 45(2) of the Income Tax Act lets you elect out of the deemed disposition. File the election with your tax return for the year you started renting, and CRA treats the home as still your principal residence for up to four extra years, even though you do not live there. Designation years keep accumulating. The four-year limit can stretch further if you moved for a job that requires relocation and meet specific conditions in section 54.1.
Two restrictions to know:
No capital cost allowance. If you claim CCA on the rental income at any point, the election is void.
One designation at a time. The home you elected on counts as your principal residence, so any other home you buy during the election period cannot be designated for those years.
The election is filed by letter attached to the T1, citing subsection 45(2) and the property address. Late elections are accepted at CRA's discretion, generally only when no CCA was claimed.
The 45(3) Election: Going the Other Way
The reverse situation. You bought a Coquitlam condo as a rental, then moved in years later. Subsection 45(3) defers the deemed disposition that would otherwise happen on move-in, and lets you treat up to four prior rental years as principal residence years. Same CCA restriction applies.
Partial Use: Basement Suites and Home Offices
Renting out a basement suite or laneway home is common in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey. CRA's administrative position is generous: the PRE is not denied on the rental portion as long as three conditions hold:
The income-producing use is ancillary to the main use as a residence.
No structural changes were made to make the property more suitable for rental.
No CCA is claimed.
Most legal secondary suites in BC clear all three. Where owners run into trouble: claiming CCA on the suite (often suggested by an over-eager tax preparer) voids the PRE on that portion permanently. A laneway home built specifically for rental income, not as part of the main residence, is also at risk because it is hard to argue it is ancillary.
BC-Specific Traps
Larger Lots and Acreage
The half-hectare cap is strict. Properties in South Surrey, Langley, the Fraser Valley, and the Gulf Islands often exceed it. The excess land qualifies only if you can show it is necessary for the use and enjoyment of the home. Zoning that requires a minimum lot size larger than half a hectare is the most reliable argument. A lifestyle preference for privacy is not.
Vacation Homes and Cabins
A Whistler cabin, a Sunshine Coast cottage, or a Tofino place can qualify as a principal residence for the years you designate it, but you give up those years on your primary home. Run the gain math on both before deciding which to designate, especially if the cabin appreciated faster.
Confusion with the BC Home Flipping Tax
The BC Home Flipping Tax (effective Jan 1, 2025) taxes gains on properties sold within 730 days of purchase, with rates up to 20% for sales inside 365 days. It is a separate provincial tax, layered on top of any federal capital gains. The PRE does not exempt you from the BC Home Flipping Tax. There is a primary-residence exemption inside that tax, but only after 12 months of ownership and only against $20,000 of gain. A short-hold sale in BC can trigger BC flipping tax even when the federal PRE fully shelters the gain.
Non-Resident Owners
Ordinarily inhabited requires Canadian residency for the year. A year you spent as a non-resident of Canada generally does not count as a designation year, even if your name was on title and the home sat empty. This catches BC owners who spent extended periods abroad without re-establishing residency.
What to Check Before You Sell
Your full ownership history. Pull dates of purchase, move-in, any rental periods, and sale.
Whether 45(2) or 45(3) was filed for any change in use. If not, see whether a late election is still possible.
Whether CCA was claimed on any rental income from the property. CCA poisons the election.
Lot size. Anything above 0.5 hectares needs a defensible necessity argument.
Other properties you owned in the same years, including a spouse's separate home.
Whether the BC Home Flipping Tax applies if you owned the property less than 730 days.
If the answer to any of those is uncertain, get a CPA involved before listing. The PRE math is not something to figure out for the first time when your accountant is preparing your T1 the following spring.
Bottom Line
For most BC homeowners selling the home they live in, the PRE is a clean exemption that wipes out hundreds of thousands in taxable gain with one Schedule 3 entry. The trap is that the rules assume continuous, sole, ordinary residence on a small lot. Anything else, a stretch as a rental, a basement suite with CCA claimed, a 0.7-hectare property in Langley, an overlap with a Whistler cabin, can chip away at the exemption or eliminate it on part of the gain. Knowing which form to file (Schedule 3 alone, or T2091, or a 45(2) letter) before you sell is what keeps the tax outcome predictable.
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