LTSA Customer Fee Change

Most LTSA customer fees are changing as of April 1, 2024. Learn more

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Need to change your address? Alert Level: LOW

Learn how to update your mailing address on title with LTSA’s online application form or learn how to make other changes to title.

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Front Counters Open By Appointment Only Alert Level: LOW

Please be aware that LTSA’s Land Title Office front counters are open 9 am – 3 pm, Monday to Friday by appointment only. Many common transactions are now available online. To book an in-person visit, contact the Customer Service Centre at 1-877-577-LTSA (5872) .

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ParcelMap BC brings land information to life in a visual way. It provides economic and social benefits to British Columbians by supporting faster and more accurate real property transactions.

Other benefits of ParcelMap BC include:

  • Delivers efficient access to a comprehensive dataset providing a rich visual representation of property information province-wide.
  • Improves the speed and efficiency of land-related research, planning and business decisions through the current spatial representation of a given parcel and its relationship to adjacent parcels.
  • Minimizes possible data discrepancies and confusion by reducing the need to consult separate spatial systems in BC.

Comments from a Parcelmap BC Adopter

“Since adopting ParcelMap BC, we have increased the number of GIS links in our property information system. It is also a huge benefit to our organization to receive a regularly-updated parcel fabric.”

Adam, Fraser Valley Regional District

Features and Awards

Features of ParcelMap BC

  • Current and authoritative source of spatial data infrastructure supporting land administration and development
  • Integrates over two million parcels across the province
  • Continually updated via authoritative sources and driven by standards
  • Relied on as a research tool for surveyed land parcels across the province
  • Award-winning for innovation in the application of technology, data collection, geospatial information visualization, and thought leadership for the public good
  • Easy-to-use and reliable access for a variety of stakeholders
  • No cost access to data product downloads for participating stakeholders, including local governments

Search basic land information free of charge via the ParcelMap BC Guest portal, or register to the myLTSA portal for enhanced land information and access to other records for purchase from the LTSA.

Awards

April 2018 – The David Thompson National Geomatics Awards were created by the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors to recognize projects that exemplify the innovation and contribution to society that surveyors make every day to bring about successful projects for the betterment of all Canadians.
January 2018 – The LTSA was selected as one of 11 finalists for the 2017 Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards. This award program recognizes organizations that have demonstrated outstanding leadership by taking bold steps to improve Canada through advancements in public administration and management.
July 2017 – Selected from over 300,000 eligible candidates worldwide, the LTSA received the Special Achievement in GIS award from Environmental Systems Research Institute for its innovative application of technology, data collection, geospatial information visualization, and thought leadership through GIS to develop ParcelMap BC.

How Parcels are Represented in ParcelMap BC

Over two million parcels are displayed in ParcelMap BC representing active titled and surveyed provincial Crown land parcels in British Columbia.

Strata Act Parcels

Unless otherwise noted, these parcel representations are expected to have a PID associated.

Building Strata
A polygon representing the outer extent of a building strata plan providing a single geometry representation for all strata lots contained within – the polygon record itself does not have a PID. Individual strata lots within the building strata – with associated PIDs – are related to this extent via the plan number through the Shared Geometry table.

The building strata is represented two dimensionally based on the horizontal extent of the parent parcel. In the case of a phased strata, the extent of the current phase is mapped as defined by the plan and the remainder of the parent parcel is also represented. With each phase amendment, the remainder decreases in size and the strata increases in size. Assuming all phases are complete, the full extent of the strata plan will match the extent of the original parent parcel.

Bare Land Strata
A parcel representing a fee simple lot created under the Strata Property Act that is not comprised of a part of a building; however, it does share a divided interest in common property. Unlike building strata parcels, these strata lots are mapped individually in ParcelMap BC – each with an associated PID. Common property in the plan is mapped separately as common ownership parcels.

In the case of phased strata, the extent of the current phase is mapped as defined by the plan and the remainder of the parent parcel is also represented. With each phase amendment, the remainder decreases in size and the strata increases in size. Assuming all phases are complete, the full extent of the strata plan will match the extent of the original parent parcel.

Common Ownership
A parcel in which other parcels in the plan share a proportionate interest. A typical example would be a shared club house or court yard within a strata plan or a common lot on a subdivision plan. These parcels do not have a distinct PID and are related to other parcels with an interest in them through the common ownership table. ParcelMap BC does not differentiate between common property and limited common property. Common property is not mapped for building stratas but is mapped for bare land stratas.

Land Title Act Parcels

Unless otherwise noted, these parcel representations are expected to have a PID associated.

Subdivision
A parcel that is a fee simple titled lot that has been Crown granted from a primary or Crown subdivision or defined through the division of its parent parcel into two or more smaller titled parcels, generally by deposit of a subdivision plan.

Air Space
A parcel which is a volumetric fee simple interest defined by an air space plan. Air space parcels are three-dimensional with upper and lower limits in addition to horizontal (side) limits contained within a single land parcel. In ParcelMap BC, air space parcels are represented two dimensionally using the horizontal extent of the parent parcel. As such, the air space plan should be referenced to identify the true extent of the parcel. Air space parcels and the remainder parcel representation will overlap topologically.

Land Act Parcels

Unless otherwise noted, these parcel representations are expected to have a PIN associated (but are not expected to have a PID).

Primary
A parcel of previously unsurveyed crown land which has been delineated and surveyed on a Land Act survey plan and registered in the Crown land registry. This land is not titled and is governed under the Land Act. All titled land begins as a primary parcel and enters the land title register after it is Crown granted.

Part of Primary
Refers to the remaining extent of an underlying primary parcel of Crown land over which there is no known titled parcel or further subdivided crown parcel. In ParcelMap BC, these parcels are referenced with “PART: See PIN12345” in the name field where the PIN number refers to the PIN of the district lot or underlying primary parcel and a legal description prefixed by “Part of Primary:” to refer to part of this defined piece of land.

Crown Subdivision
A parcel of Crown land, called a block, that has been created as a part of its parent primary parcel, generally by confirmation of a Land Act survey plan. An important distinction is that these parcels are within the Crown land registry – without a title registered in the land title register – and governed under the Land Act.

Return to Crown
A parcel that has been transferred from the land title register to the Crown. This usually relates to parcels created as a result of erosion of land by a water body and will represent the area between the present natural boundary and the original natural boundary. If the foreshore is provincial Crown land, then the eroded land is often returned to the Crown.

Other Parcels

Unless otherwise noted, these parcel representations are not expected to have either a PID or PIN associated.

Absolute Fee Book
A parcel for a title registered in the now-historic Absolute Fee title system. The Register of Absolute Fees closed in 1921, however some active Absolute Fee Book titles continue to be retained in this legacy paper-based system. Since 2015 there has been an ongoing effort to convert most active Absolute Fee Book parcel to modern electronic indefeasible title. Titles in the Absolute Fee Book book will often have a draft status PID (in preparation for the indefeasible title) or no PID at all logged in the system. Once converted to modern indefeasible title, the parcel will receive an active PID in the land title register

Interest Parcels
Refers to a parcel representing the surveyed extent of a charge (i.e. less than fee-simple interest) such as easements, covenants, statutory rights of way over titled parcels or statutory rights of way over untitled Crown land. Statutory rights of way are differentiated from other interest parcels through the Name field. Interest parcels in ParcelMap BC include surveyed charges defined on a plan filed with the LTSA after that region was first published in ParcelMap BC. For statutory rights of way over untitled Crown land, the parcel representation may reference a PID corresponding to the area defined on the plan over which a charge has been raised. Otherwise these statutory rights of way over Crown land will have a PIN associated.

These parcels represent the extent to which a charge may be registered and do not indicate whether a charge is actually active.

In ParcelMap BC, interest parcels may topologically overlap other cadastral parcels. Similar to air space parcels, volumetric interests are represented two dimensionally using the horizontal extent of the parent parcel but attributed as interest parcels.

Park
A parcel that has been dedicated as a public park on a subdivision, reference, or explanatory plan deposited to the land title office.

Road
A parcel that has been dedicated as road through a subdivision, reference, or explanatory plan deposited to the land title office. Further details on the road type can be distinguished through the Name field which includes: arterial highway, forest service road, lane, pathway, road, or Walkway. These names correspond to the wording on the land title plan which dedicated the road.

Owner Types

Each parcel in ParcelMap BC is assigned an Owner Type, depending on whether the parcel is associated with an active title.

Owner Types include:

  • Private
  • Federal
  • Crown Provincial
  • Crown Agency
  • Municipal
  • First Nation
  • Mixed Ownership
  • Untitled Provincial
  • Unclassified

View a detailed reference for each Owner Type in ParcelMap BC.

Understanding Accuracy

The ParcelMap BC fabric is compiled of parcels represented at a known level of accuracy.

To improve parcel fabric quality and integrity, spatial improvements are used to update both the relative and absolute positioning of survey parcels and to improve the accuracy of the parcel representations shown in ParcelMap BC.