Housing Grant Raised in BC.

Finance Minister Carole Taylor increased the basic homeowner grant from $470 to $570.

It's the first time the grant has been increased since 1993.

Housing Grant is a yearly reduction on property tax for people who live in the houses they own.

The threshold for the grant increased from $685,000 to include homes worth $780,000, a reflection of increasing real-estate values.

Raising the ceiling to $780,000 helped about 27,000 homeowners.

MJ Whitemarsh with the Canadian Home Builders' Association said the grant increase enables more people to stay in their homes, especially seniors who may have bought their homes at a lower price but risk losing their residences now because the assessments have gone up so much in the past few years.

The homeowners grant does nothing to help renters, people trying to get into the housing market and the homeless.