As managing director at Rogers Group Financial, Clay Gillespie is one of those financial advisers who’s riding the Grey Wave. The majority of his clients are retirees.

Some of those clients are on a fixed income, and it’s Gillespie’s job to find them spending room. For some of them, he finds it their municipal taxes.

“I recommend that some of my clients defer their property taxes. It’s one of the cheapest ways, by far, of finding some wiggle room if you’re on a fixed income.”

If you look at it as a loan, it’s about the cheapest money out there. Under the B.C. Property Tax Deferment Program, homeowners can waive either a portion or all of their annual property tax, and pay only one per cent interest on the total. The interest on that total isn’t compounded, so if your annual property tax is $5,000, you pay only $50 in interest on it. (The province sets the rate quarterly, usually two points below prime.)

The program has been around since 1974, and for decades the numbers have been modest. Homeowners of an older generation were traditionally debt shy.

But that has changed in the last five years. The number of deferrals in B.C. has climbed steadily, especially in Metro Vancouver.

Given the rise in property values in Metro Vancouver, and with it the rise in assessed value and municipal tax rates, more and more homeowners here are feeling the squeeze and availing themselves of the program.

There are categories that define who can qualify, which the province has expanded of late. Those 55 and over are eligible; as is a surviving spouse of any age; or a person with disabilities. A parent or step-parent supporting a child also qualifies, as do those who apply as a “hardship case,” though the tax deferred in those cases is charged at a higher three-per-cent interest rate.

Under the program, the province remits the cost of the property tax to the municipality. The province recovers the cost, with interest, whenever the homeowner chooses to pay it, when the home is sold or from the homeowner’s estate.

“If you can give someone on a fixed income, say, an extra $500 a month of spending money,” Gillespie said, “that’s big deal. I think probably about 30 per cent of my clients are deferring their property taxes.”

There are other property tax deferment programs across Canada. Unlike those programs, though, B.C.’s does not require a means test. Anyone in the province, rich or poor, can defer their property taxes regardless of income, as long as they meet the criteria. Some homeowners, who have seen the equity in their homes skyrocket, have regarded it as a way of accessing cheap money they can invest or spend elsewhere.

“I think some people defer for the sake of deferral,” Gillespie said. “It’s the old cheap money argument — use it for a better rate of return — but I don’t recommend that. It’s a cheap rate now but that won’t always be the case.”

What is the case is the program’s increasing popularity.

In 2010, in all of B.C. there were 29,866 properties that were deferred.

In 2014, there were 38,728.

Most of that growth has been in Metro Vancouver. With so many homeowners squeezed between big mortgages and the high cost of living here, almost all of Metro’s municipalities have seen growth in the numbers.

The City of Vancouver, for example, has gone from 2,866 deferrals in 2010 to 3,938 in 2014.

Surrey’s went from 1,176 in 2009 to 1,872 in 2014.

In Burnaby, there were 712 deferrals in 2010. In 2014, there were 1,116.

Richmond’s went from 666 properties in 2009 to 1,139 in 2014. (Richmond also supplied the growth in the amount of tax dollars deferred in those years — just over $627,000 in 2009 to just under $3.5 million in 2014.)

Gillespie was surprised at the numbers.

“I’m surprised these numbers were as low as they are. I thought they’d be much higher, given the cost of housing these days.”

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com