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from the for-$10K/year-I'll-make-a-house-look-lived-in dept.
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: 3, Funny) by driverless on Friday September 16 2016, @10:33AM
I spend nearly 4 hours per day on trains commuting to and from work.
Luxury! I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, travel twenty-nine hours a day down to mill, and pay mill owner for permission to travel there and when we got back to our rent-controlled apartment in Downtown Eastside, our Dad would kill us and dance about on our graves singing about dangerously low vacancy rates.
(There are a lot of drugs in circulation in Downtown Eastside).
(Score: 2) by Bogsnoticus on Saturday September 17 2016, @06:36AM
Did I forget to mention that once I walk home from the station, barefoot in the snow, the missus slices me in two with a bread knife?
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.