New land transfer and mortgage registration levy comes into effect in Alberta

The Alberta government has hiked fees for land transfers and mortgage registrations.

The new land titles registration levy was announced as part of the provincial budget earlier this year but came into effect on Oct. 20.

It means Albertans will have to pay these higher variable fees, in addition to a $50 flat fee that has remained unchanged:

• For land transfers, the variable fee has increased from $2 per $5,000 in property value to $5 per $5,000.
• For mortgage registrations and caveats that charge the land, the variable fee has increased from $1.50 per $5,000 in mortgage value to $5 per $5,000.

According to a recent issue of the government's Alberta Title Talk newsletter, land title registration fees for a $450,000 property with a $405,000 mortgage have jumped from $401.50 to $955 under the new levy — an increase of 138 per cent.

Julie Manna, a mortgage broker with clients in Edmonton and Calgary, said people have not been reacting positively to news of the levy.

"It's a big hit to people that they weren't expecting," Manna told CBC News in an interview.

Where is the money going?

Brandon Aboultaif, press secretary for Dale Nally, the minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, said in an emailed statement that the government increased fees to help keep up with future needs of the province's unprecedented population growth.

He said the levy is estimated to raise about $90 million in additional revenue per year — money that will also help fund the modernization of the land titles office.

Processing delays at the land titles office were holding up some real estate transactions for more than 80 days in 2022. 

The government announced in December 2023 that it had cleared the document backlog, but according to the government's land titles website, processing times are still longer than they used to be before the sales surge in 2021-22.

"Alberta's significant real estate market activity continues to impact land title and survey document intake," Aboultaif said.

Mixed reactions to levy

Calgary-North East MLA Gurinder Brar, the NDP Opposition critic for Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, said in a statement that the new fees make getting into a difficult housing market even harder for Albertans.

"The UCP government clearly doesn't care about affordability," he said.

Brad Mitchell, CEO of the Alberta Real Estate Association, said the association would have preferred to see a temporary levy that disappears once modernization work on the land titles office concludes.

"We think that that would have been a much more responsible way to do this because the temptation for future governments is always to increase taxes," he said.

Though the association isn't happy about the levy, Mitchell said Alberta's is a lot lower than those in other provinces and he doesn't think it will hurt the housing market.

Aboultaif said Alberta's new registration fees are one-fifth of the national average and 40 per cent lower than in Saskatchewan, the next-lowest-cost jurisdiction.

Melody Wilson, an Edmonton Realtor with Real Broker, said a lot of her clients are coming from Ontario and B.C., which both have higher taxes for transferring land. 

"This is still going to be by far a lot more affordable than other provinces, so I'm not worried," she said. 

Wilson said interest rates are likely hindering home-buyers more than this new, one-time fee.