Contents 11 sections
It depends on how you hold the land. On the median Vancouver R1-1 lot, a land loan at prime costs about $8,700 a month: interest, property tax and rising build prices. A new-house permit took a median of 142 days in 2026, so that’s about $41,000. If you own the lot outright and live in the house, the wait costs much less, about $540 a month. The real trap is leaving the house empty before your permit is issued. Then the Empty Homes Tax can add 3% of the property’s value, about $69,000.
What we found
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$8,700
A month of permit waiting on the median Vancouver R1-1 lot, with a land loan at prime: $7,530 interest, $645 property tax and $540 in rising build prices. November 2026.
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$41,000
Holding cost of the median new-house permit wait in Vancouver (142 days in 2026), with a land loan at prime.
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$105,000
Holding cost of a slow permit: the slowest 1 in 10 new-house permits in 2026 took a year or more (366 days).
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$38,000
Saved on a typical new-house permit since 2023, with a land loan. The median wait fell from 274 days to 142.
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$69,000
Empty Homes Tax on the median R1-1 property (3% of $2.3 million) if the house sits empty for most of the year before permits are issued.
- Carrying a loan on the land
T-City model. Land $1,922,000 and total value $2,301,000: medians for R1-1 lots on the 2026 roll. Property tax at the City’s 2026 residential rate. Price growth: 0.6% a year on a $1,000,000 build (Statistics Canada index, July 2025 to July 2026). Prime: TD, October 29, 2026. Empty Homes Tax not included
What are holding costs?
Holding costs, also called carrying costs, are what you pay to own land while nothing is being built on it. During a permit wait, they are:
- Interest on any loan against the land, or the return you give up on your own money
- Property tax, which is due whether you build or not
- Rising build prices, since the same house costs more to build next year
- Vacancy taxes, if the house sits empty
The monthly cost, line by line
Here’s the math for the median Vancouver R1-1 lot on the 2026 roll: land worth $1,922,000 and a total property value of $2,301,000. We assume a $1,000,000 build, close to the median declared on a new-house permit in 2025 and 2026.
| Cost | How we worked it out | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Interest on the land | $1,922,000 at TD prime, 4.70%, ÷ 12 | $7,530 |
| Property tax | $2,301,000 × $3.36394 per $1,000 (2026 rate) ÷ 12 | $645 |
| Rising build prices | $1,000,000 × 0.65% a year (July 2025 to July 2026) ÷ 12 | $540 |
| Total | With a land loan at prime | $8,715 |
Land loans usually cost more than prime. Each extra percentage point adds about $1,600 a month. Build prices rose much faster in 2021 and 2022. At the 2.75% a year average since July 2023, that line would be about $2,300.
Three ways to wait
- You own the lot and live in the house: about $540 a month. You’d pay property tax anyway. Your main cost is build prices creeping up
- You bought the lot with a land loan: about $8,700 a month. Interest is most of it. A 142-day wait costs about $41,000
- You moved out and left the house empty: up to $69,000 more. If the permits aren’t issued in time, the Empty Homes Tax applies. See below
Can an empty house waiting on a permit be taxed?
Yes. This is the costly mistake. The City’s exemption for a house being rebuilt needs a building permit issued during the year. Pending permits don’t count. The City says it is the owner’s job to keep the property occupied until permits are issued.
- The tax is 3% of the assessed value for a home empty more than six months of the year. On the median R1-1 property, that’s about $69,000
- A cleared lot is treated differently. Vacant land with no house isn’t taxed while a permit application is under review and being pursued
- The province’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax is 1% for Canadians in 2026. Its exemption counts applying for a permit as building activity, so a wait is less risky there
So keep the house lived in or rented until your permit is issued. Rentals have to be for 30 days or more at a time, for at least six months of the year.
How much have faster permits saved?
- 2026
- 2026 runs to October 2
T-City analysis of City of Vancouver open data: new-building permits for a single detached house (not a duplex), permit elapsed days
The median new-house permit took 274 days in 2023 and 142 in 2026. With a land loan, those 132 days are worth about $38,000. Duplex permits fell from 324 days to 130, worth about $56,000. Multiplex permits went the other way: 122 days in 2024, 192 in 2026. See multiplex permits by the numbers.
How we worked it out
We used the City of Vancouver’s open data: every issued building permit to October 2, 2026, and the property tax report.
Lot values: medians for R1-1 lots on the 2026 roll, which shows values as of July 1, 2025. Permit waits: median and slowest-10% days from application to permit, for new-house permits issued in 2026. Rates as of November 6, 2026: Bank of Canada policy rate 2.5% (October 28) and TD prime 4.70% (October 29).
- Rates change. We dated every input. Re-run the interest line when the prime rate moves
- Your lot isn’t the median. Scale the numbers to your land value
- We left out insurance and site security. They vary too much to use one number
- Tax rules quoted from the City and the province, November 2026. Check your own case with them
How to keep the wait cheap
- Live in the house or keep it rented until your building permit is issued
- Get your drawings right the first time. Most delay comes from rounds of changes. Our process checks the rules before we apply
- Line up demolition and the build early, so work starts the week the permit is issued. See how long a demolish and rebuild takes
Sources
Every outside figure traces to one of these pages, all opened on November 6, 2026. T-City’s own analysis uses the City of Vancouver open datasets. Rates and fee schedules change, so we recheck them for your lot during feasibility.
- City of Vancouver Open Data: Issued building permits
- City of Vancouver Open Data: Property tax report (2020 to 2026 rolls)
- City of Vancouver: Residential property tax rates (2026)
- City of Vancouver: Empty Homes Tax evidence and exemptions
- City of Vancouver: Empty Homes Tax
- Government of BC: Speculation and vacancy tax rates
- Government of BC: Speculation and vacancy tax, land under development
- Bank of Canada: Policy rate raised to 2.5%, October 28, 2026
- TD: Prime rate, 4.70% from October 29, 2026
- Statistics Canada: Building construction price indexes, table 18-10-0289-01
