Vancouver Going Ahead With Vacant Home Tax

Vancouver has figured out a way to tax unoccupied houses. They plan to do so by treating the homes as business investments to help calm the affordability crises of houses in the city of Vancouver according to the Mayor, Greg Robertson.

If this is put in place, the tax will bring about expenses for a lot of foreign investors who have contributed in making the west coast city to be one of Canada’s highly expensive properties in the real estate market.

A deadline of the 1st of August has been given to the British Columbia government by the City to respond to the plan of taxing about 11,000 vacant homes in the Vancouver area, if not they will continue with the procedure alone.

Even though the provinces will not go through this plan with Vancouver, the Mayor said the city will still find out an alternative to bring up their own rules and generate a business tax for unoccupied homes that are being detained as an investment.

Robertson said in a report that they are ready to have those who feel they have the right to use houses as a business deal, taxed and ensure they face the consequences of doing so. The rate that should be imposed on the tax has not yet been made clear, but it will be on the high end to make sure the home owner will have no other choice than to lease their property.

The only option the city has is to work hand in hand with the province, which has information on houses that are occupied on not. If Vancouver works alone, the city will have to endorse a different business tax by-law, which could take some time to process. Christy Clark the British Columbia Premier mentioned in a tweet that the province is taking their time to go over the city’s report and act as quick as possible.

According to Jamie Edwardson, a spokesman for the provincial finance ministry said that the provincial are reviewing a couple of proposals to get the housing market in Canada regulated. A report revealed that over 90 per cent of detached homes in Vancouver have gone up to prices that exceed $1 million dollars.

Even though there has been a high increase of home prices in Vancouver, which has gone up to 46.9 per cent in a period of five years, there seems to be no action taken by the province to cool down the housing markets. The only steps that have taken by them was of recent when they started keeping an eye on foreign buyers to figure out ways they can cool the market down.