Despite a COVID-19-driven recession, B.C. saw real estate sales surge 21.5 per cent last year, while prices across the province were up 11.7 per cent from 2019.

The agency said the average price of a home province-wide was $700,460, down 1.6 per cent from 2018, though that dip was a result of price drops in three key regions.  

While Metro Vancouver assessed values are expected to dip, elsewhere in the province they may stay flat or even climb modestly.

Finance Minister Carole James said in a statement the records will help drive down B.C.'s real estate market and prevent distortions to the provincial economy.

The agency says nearly 7,100 homes sold across the province in August, up 4.9 per cent from the same month last year.

"It seems far too easy for these notorious figures to come to Canada in the first place and far too difficult to remove them after the fact," writes Rob Breakenridge.

The B.C. government is creating a new, publicly accessible registry of who owns real estate in the province.

Daniel Deng has to pay B.C.'s real estate council 45-hundred dollars after not telling his clients he was providing services through his personal corporation.

Realtors will soon no longer be able to represent both sides of a deal in B.C.

The City of Richmond's planning committee will meet on Tuesday to consider solutions to the ongoing problem of increasingly large luxury homes being built on farmland.