Ontario Premier to impose 15% Tax on Foreign Real Estate Speculators
Premier Kathleen Wynne will slap a 15% “non-resident speculation” tax to help southern Ontario’s real estate market cool down.
Wynne says her administration will “soon” put measures in place to cool a frenzied housing market and help both purchasers and hose willing to rent. The average price of detached houses in the Toronto area has increased to $1.21 million.
Ontario’s Premier is imposing a 15% “non-resident speculation” tax on foreign investors to help cool down the scorching real estate market in southern Ontario, says the Star.
The premier will join Minister of Finance and the Minister of Housing, Charles Sousa and Chris Ballard respectively on Thursday against a backdrop of condo towers in booming Liberty Village to launch a big plan to ameliorate housing affordability.
A key plank in that would be the 15% surcharge on foreign investors, who are estimated to make up just 5% of the current market.
Modeled on British Columbia’s “foreign purchasers’ tax” in Vancouver, the levy would apply to home buyers in the so-called Greater Golden Horseshoe who are not nationals or permanent residents.
Sales in and around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo, would be affected and encompass everywhere north to Barrie and Orillia and east to Peterborough.
Talking in Ottawa on Wednesday, the premier of Ontario said there would not be a one-size-fits-all solution throughout Ontario for real estate.
Wynne said “we have discussed on the interaction between the housing market in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and in Ottawa or London.”
The premier also said “The circumstances are different. Just as when this discussion started and we looked at what was going in Vancouver, it was a different situation than in Toronto.” “Now I think there are maybe some more similarities there but we have to look at the evidence. We have to find out what is really going in each of the communities and make a determination.”
“Presently in terms of the buying of a house, the really hot, frantic market is found in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and we have to consistently assess what goes when we bring in the package of initiatives and what happens going forward.”
