Same income. Different closing cheque.
The stress test and the ratios are federal — a posting doesn’t change what you qualify for. What changes at the BC–Alberta border is the cash a closing eats: BC charges Property Transfer Tax, Alberta charges small land-title fees. Here’s the same purchase, both provinces, side by side.
Your numbers
BC only: full exemption to $500,000, an $8,000 saving to $835,000, phasing out by $860,000.
BC only: full exemption to $1,100,000, phasing out by $1,150,000. You get whichever exemption saves more.
British Columbia
$15,000
Property Transfer Tax.
Alberta
$1,715
No transfer tax — land-title fees only ($900 title + $815 mortgage registration).
The gap on this purchase
$13,285
The same $850,000 purchase needs $100,000 at closing in BC and $86,715 in Alberta — an Alberta posting frees $13,285 of your cash.
What a posting doesn’t change: the stress test, the ratio ceilings and the down-payment rules are federal — what you qualify for travels with you (run it here). And this desk is licensed on both sides of that border — BC directly, Alberta under RECA — so the file moves when you do. Property taxes and prices differ city by city; that’s the conversation, not a formula.
The rules this runs on — and how the math was verified
BC Property Transfer Tax (residential): 1% on the first $200,000, 2% to $2,000,000, 3% above, plus an additional 2% over $3,000,000 — with the post-2024 first-time-buyer exemption (full to $500,000, $8,000 to $835,000, gone by $860,000) and the newly-built exemption (full to $1,100,000, gone by $1,150,000); you get whichever saves more. Alberta charges no transfer tax — land-title fees of $50 + $5 per $5,000 of value, and the same again on the mortgage amount. Sources: gov.bc.ca and alberta.ca, via the family’s audited land-transfer engine.
The engine passes 27 automated checks — the hub’s audited hand values re-asserted on this copy, hand-computed Alberta fee cases including the rounding boundary, and exemption identities. Arithmetic last verified August 4, 2026. It’s an illustration, not a quote or legal advice.
One of the Mortgage Guru family’s 50+ free calculators — counted honestly. Moving somewhere with a different tax? The hub covers Ontario too.