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Stewart sent out a mass email to potential clients on Tuesday suggesting he had found a solution to the property transfer tax. A copy of it is posted below.

But he suggested his agency could help foreign clients who have bought pre-sale contracts.

“Most of the presales bought in the last 24-36 months have seen significant increases in value,” according to his email, a copy of which was obtained by Postmedia.

“It is possible in many cases to assign the presale purchase contract to a family member or friend who is a Canadian Citizen or Resident. For those of you who do not have that option, we may be able to sell the presale to a third party at a profit to you,” the email suggested.

It added that people could get more information by following a link, but that page on Stewart’s corporate website has now been taken down.

Calls and text messages to Stewart’s phone were not returned.

However, in an interview with radio station CKNW, he said he wasn’t counselling people to find loopholes in the tax. Instead, he said his advice pertained to pre-sale contracts that aren’t yet registered in the Land Titles Office.

“It is primarily a specific solution for a very specific situation. I want to be very clear I am not telling anybody about how to avoid a tax that is payable because that is illegal and that is not something that I do and that I am allowed to do,” he said in the interview.