Selling your business in Vancouver, BC
The Vancouver area has about 121,000 business locations with employees, and 96 in 100 of them have fewer than 50 people. Plenty of those owners are thinking about what comes next: about 20 in 100 British Columbia businesses plan to sell or hand over ownership within ten years.
How we sell a Vancouver business
This page covers what selling looks like here. What the City and the province ask of you, what your buyer needs from the City, and how we help owners navigate the sale of their business.
A free sale plan first
See what your business could sell for, and exactly how we would sell it, before you commit to anything.
A confidential package built from your own numbers
Buyers see the business clearly. Your name stays private.
Registered buyers see it seven days before the public
Every new business goes to our Buyers Market Club first.
Nobody learns who you are until they sign our confidentiality agreement
You make every decision
Which offer, what terms, and when.
No upfront fees to sell
Our fee is paid at closing.
What you hand over when you sell in Vancouver
Your City business licence
It can go to your buyer, if they run the same kind of business. You and your buyer both fill out the City's transfer form, and the fee is $201. A licence can only be transferred once a calendar year. If your buyer changes the kind of business, they apply for a new licence: $77 to apply, plus the yearly fee.
City of Vancouver, Transfer your business licence; Apply for a business licence
WorkSafeBC clearance
Before buying your assets, your buyer will ask WorkSafeBC for a clearance letter. If a business owes WorkSafeBC premiums, its assets can carry a lien in WorkSafeBC's favour, and the letter protects the buyer from it. Keep your account paid up so the letter comes back clean.
WorkSafeBC, Get a clearance letter
Sales tax
BC charges PST on the equipment and other goods sold with the business, but not on goodwill. Give your buyer a PST clearance certificate, or they can owe whatever PST you still owe. GST still applies, but when you sell the whole business, a joint election with the buyer on Form GST44 can mean no GST is payable on the sale. Your accountant tells you whether yours qualifies.
Province of British Columbia, Buying and selling a business; Canada Revenue Agency, Form GST44
Your staff
Their years of service carry over to the new owner. If you let anyone go before the sale, what you owe them stays yours to pay.
BC Employment Standards Act, section 97
Your lease or building
In an asset sale, the lease or land part of the deal is handled by a licensed commercial realtor. If a building changes hands, the Land Title and Survey Authority charges $83.82 to register the transfer.
BC Financial Services Authority; Land Title and Survey Authority fee listing
A liquor licence or food permit
When a business changes hands, its BC liquor licence must be transferred. The application fee is $330, and you can stay open while it is processed. A Vancouver Coastal Health food permit doesn't transfer: the buyer applies for their own.
BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch; Vancouver Coastal Health
What your buyer needs from the City
When a licence transfers, the City may want approvals of its own before the new owner opens. Plan the closing date around them, so your customers never find a closed door.
Zoning
Whether the zoning at your address allows the business to operate.
Building
The City reviews the property records and may ask for a special inspection or a building permit.
Police, fire and health approvals
Where the business needs them. The City helps the buyer through them.
No fixed times
The City says processing times vary with the type of business and the time of year, and fall and winter are its busiest months for licences.
Around Metro Vancouver
Each city has its own step for a new owner.
Surrey
A change of owner is a $25 update to the licence, with a copy of the purchase and sale agreement.
Burnaby
The fee to transfer a business licence is $83.
Richmond
A change of owner needs a Transfer of Licence Form along with the licence application.
Trades working across cities
They can hold the Metro West licence: one $300 licence, on top of the home city's, covering Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster, Richmond, Surrey and Vancouver.
What is a Vancouver business worth?
Buyers price a small business as a multiple of its yearly earnings, and the multiple depends on the industry. Our free estimate shows yours as a range, built from published sale data for your industry (North American sales data). See the ranges by industry on our free business valuation page, or read how many times profit a business is worth.
Vancouver owners we help
We sell all types of businesses, in every industry. In Vancouver that often means professional services, construction and the trades, health care, shops, repair and personal services, and restaurants, the area's largest groups of employers. For the province wide picture, read our guide on how to sell a business in BC.
- Professional services
- Construction and the trades
- Health care
- Shops
- Repair and personal services
- Restaurants
Questions Vancouver owners ask
Do I need a licence to sell my own business in BC?
Does my City of Vancouver business licence go to the buyer?
Who sees my business?
What does it cost to sell with you?
Do you only work in Vancouver?
See what your business could sell for, and exactly how we would sell it, with a free sale plan.
Or call us at 778-760-8081. A Senior Deal Advisor calls you next.
Sources
- Business locations with employees, Vancouver census metropolitan area, June 2026: Statistics Canada, table 33-10-1176-01 (121,423 locations; 116,179 with 1 to 49 employees).
- Plans to sell or transfer within ten years, British Columbia, third quarter 2026: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, table 33-10-1196-01 (19.7%).
- Licence rules: City of Vancouver, "Transfer your business licence to someone else", "Apply for a business licence" and its Metro West licence page; City of Surrey, "Updating your business licence"; City of Burnaby, Consolidated Fees and Charges Bylaw No. 14485 (2026); City of Richmond, "Business licences".
- WorkSafeBC clearance: WorkSafeBC, "Get a clearance letter".
- Sales tax: Province of British Columbia, "Buying and selling a business" (updated 31 July 2026); Canada Revenue Agency, Form GST44.
- Staff: Employment Standards Act, RSBC 1996 c 113, section 97, and the Employment Standards Branch interpretive guide (updated 15 January 2024).
- Leases and land: BC Financial Services Authority, "Sale of a Business" (14 July 2022) and "Licensing Exemptions Information"; Land Title and Survey Authority fee listing, 1 April 2026.
- Liquor and food: BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, "Transfer a liquor licence"; Vancouver Coastal Health, "Food Service Permits and Health Approvals".
Succession Market publishes this page from Kelowna, British Columbia. It is general information, not tax or legal advice for a particular sale. Updated .