The foreign buyer ban expires in January, and Ottawa has not decided

Canada's Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, the foreign buyer ban, is written to disappear on 1 January 2027. As of 11 October 2026 Ottawa has not said whether it will extend, narrow or drop it.

Budget 2022, tabled on 7 April 2022, announced a two-year prohibition. The Act received Royal Assent on 23 June 2022 inside the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1. The regulations were published in the Canada Gazette on 21 December 2022, eleven days before the Act took effect on 1 January 2023. It covers properties with up to three dwelling units in census metropolitan areas and agglomerations, including the GTA.

On 27 March 2023, Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen announced same-day amendments: work permit holders could buy with at least 183 days of validity remaining, vacant land was removed from the prohibition, an exception was created for purchases "for the purpose of development," and the corporate control threshold rose from 3 per cent to 10 per cent.

On 4 February 2024, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the intention to move the expiry from 1 January 2025 to 1 January 2027, and Bill C-69 made that law on 20 June 2024.

Since then the record is thin. Bloomberg reported in December 2025 that Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said 2026 would be used to review the policy and study other models, including Australia, which lets foreigners buy newly built homes but not existing ones. On 7 October 2026, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Ottawa, "We're looking at all the options that we have in front of us." No bill, regulation or budget measure has been published. Finance Canada said on 6 July 2026 only that Budget 2026 comes "this fall."

The April 2022 announcement ran about nine months ahead of the start date. The 2024 extension was announced about eleven months before the original expiry and enacted six months before it. The March 2023 package shows that the exceptions can be changed by regulation and take effect the day they are announced.

Against that pattern, the equivalent point for 2027, early February 2026, passed with a review rather than a decision. Because the repeal date sits in statute, a further extension needs legislation, and the autumn budget bill is the obvious vehicle. Letting the ban lapse requires nothing. An Australian-style carve-out for new construction could be made by regulation in days, but only while the Act exists. None of this says what Ottawa will choose; it says the window is short.

Statistics Canada put non-resident ownership at 2.2 per cent of Ontario residential property in 2020 and at 2.6 per cent in the Toronto census metropolitan area in 2021 (releases of 17 September 2021 and 13 June 2023). CMHC's condominium survey of 14 May 2021 found non-residents owned 2.6 per cent of Toronto-area condominium apartments in 2020, rising to 4.7 per cent in buildings completed since 2010. The government's own regulatory impact statement of December 2022 conceded that "specific figures on foreign buyer activity" were "not available at the national level."

Later assessments agree. Royal LePage's chief operating officer Karen Yolevski told BNN Bloomberg on 20 September 2024, "We really haven't seen this ban have an impact on any segment of the market." CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal told Bloomberg on 7 October 2026 that the ban "doesn't make any sense." The segment most often tied to offshore buyers has struggled on its own: Urbanation's second-quarter 2026 survey, reported 20 July 2026, counted 702 new condominium sales in the GTHA, record developer-held unsold inventory of just over 5,000 units, and no launches for a second straight quarter.

For our clients, the exemptions matter more than the headline. Work permit holders may buy one property with 183 days or more left on their permit. International students may buy one property for no more than $500,000 if they are enrolled at a designated institution, filed Canadian tax returns for the five preceding years and were present at least 244 days in each. Referred refugee claimants, development purchases and vacant land are exempt. Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax is the larger constant, 25 per cent since 25 October 2022, province-wide, on foreign nationals, foreign corporations and taxable trustees, with a rebate for buyers who become permanent residents within four years. It does not move with the federal Act.