Vancouver, suffering from a near-zero supply of homes available for rent, plans to slap investors sitting on vacant properties with a new tax in an effort to make housing more accessible in Canada's most-expensive property market.
The levy, which would start in January, may be as high as 2 percent of the property's assessed value, Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, the city's general manager of community services, told reporters Wednesday. That would mean a minimum C$20,000 ($15,000) annual payment for the typical C$1 million-plus detached home in Vancouver based on July 2015 assessment data, the most recent available.
"Vancouver is in a rental housing crisis," said Mayor Gregor Robertson, whose announcement follows a separate measure by the province in July to impose a 15 percent tax on foreign buyers. "Dangerously low vacancy rates across the city are near zero."
Vancouver is penalizing property owners for not renting empty buildings.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @04:08AM
It's like when you're circling around trying to find a parking space for 20 minutes and you start cursing at empty spaces reserved for handicapped license plates. The fallacy is thinking that you'd get a spot if some of those were freed up. No, if there are more than two cars competing for every parking space, then increasing inventory by 3 percent will hardly be noticeable.