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Vancouver Mayor promises to tax empty homes

June 23rd, 2016  |  Home

With the dubious honour of having the most overheated housing market in the country, Vancouver has been the main target for ideas on how to cool and control its real estate market. Yesterday its mayor, Gregor Robertson, is proposing a new tax rate for homeowners that are sitting on empty properties and profiting from the neverending price growth.

Those sky high prices are partially due to the fact that supply of homes both affordable and otherwise is really low in the city, and keeping properties empty that could otherwise house families does nothing but exacerbate the issue.

The Vancouver Sun reports that approximately 12.5% of Vancouver’s condos and 1% of its detached homes are empty all year. That’s 10,800 homes that people could be living in just collecting dust and appreciating in value. Mayor Robertson is taking on something of a beast with this plan as there will need to be lots of careful planning about how exactly to implement the tax, how much it should be, and how it will even be enforced.

While B.C. Premier Christy CLark hasn’t responded to the city’s request to create this new property class, the provincial Finance Minister is set to meet with Mayor Robertson on Monday to discuss how they can work together to address this issue.