Photo: Contributed

OMREB President Tanis Read

Changes to B.C.’s foreign buyer's tax are being slammed by the association representing Okanagan realtors.

The province announced this week that it's hiking the tax to 20 per cent and expanding it to a number of communities outside Metro Vancouver including the Central Okanagan. 

"The change has significantly reduced the budget for my clients who are looking to move to Canada from Europe," said Tanis Read, president of the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board.

"It's distressing that the province didn't consult with the industry as a trusted partner, not an adversary, and perhaps there could have been more concrete solutions."

Read says the changes will do more harm than good in the Okanagan. 

"No one in this region believes this is a problem here and this move will have a lot of unintended negative consequences,' she said. 

In 2016, 1.8 per cent of real estate purchases in the central Okanagan involved a foreign buyer.