Vancouver levies property vacancy tax

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Via The Guardian:

After introducing a 20% tax on foreign buyers, the city in western Canada is continuing to tackle housing affordability

Thousands of homes in Vancouver have been declared unused and liable for a new empty homes tax as part of a government attempt to tackle skyrocketing home prices and soaring rents.

About 4.6% or 8,481 homes in the western Canadian city stood empty or underutilised for more than 180 days in 2017, according to declarations submitted to the municipality by 98.85% of homeowners.

More:

Following the extended deadline for Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax ending March 5, the owners of nearly 99 per cent of the city’s homes filed declarations, the City of Vancouver announced March 7.

There were 183,911 property status declarations submitted, out of the stated 186,043 homes in the city.

Of the total number of homes, 177,562 – or 95.6 per cent – were declared as occupied (either a principal residence or long-term tenanted).

Another 6,349 were declared as unoccupied or under-used residential properties. However, that number includes all homes that are exempt from the tax – such as properties undergoing renovation or redevelopment, the title was transferred during the year, or the owner was in a hospital, or a long-term or care facility. When asked how many of homes were declared, the City of Vancouver told the Courier, “The number of exempt declarations will not be confirmed until audits have been conducted and complaints for 2017 have been submitted. These specific declaration numbers will be released, along with the revenue raised by the tax, in an Annual Report… in fall of 2018.”

The 2,132 residential properties in the city that remain undeclared are deemed empty and will be subject to the tax, as well as an additional $250 fine for non-declaration.

Empty and deemed-empty properties will be sent a tax bill in mid-March with payment due by April 16. The bill is one per cent of the home’s assessed value as of July 2017.

Most of the 8,481 empty, underused or undeclared properties are condos, at 60.6 per cent. Single-family homes made up 33.5 per cent of this figure and other properties 5.9 per cent.

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Good job but at 1% it ain’t going to to nuthin’. Make it 10%.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.