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Vancouver slaps $10,000 a year tax on empty homes.

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D

Dalek

Member
Vancouver slaps $10,000 a year tax on empty homes. Lie about it and it’s $10,000 a day

Want to keep your million-dollar luxury pad in Vancouver empty? Get ready to pay $10,000 (US$7,450) annually in extra taxes. Lie about it? That’ll be $10,000 a day in fines.

Canada’s most-expensive property market, suffering from a near-zero supply of rental homes, announced the details of a new tax aimed at prodding absentee landlords into making their properties available for lease. The empty-home tax will take effect by Jan. 1 and will be calculated at one per cent of the property’s assessed value, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters at City Hall.

“Vancouver is in a rental-housing crisis,” Robertson said. “The city won’t sit on the sidelines while over 20,000 empty and under-occupied properties hold back homes from renters.”

The measure is among efforts to make housing more accessible and affordable in Vancouver, ranked the world’s third-most-livable city, and has drawn attention for its sky-high prices fomented by global money flows. Public scrutiny has focused on absentee landlords, particularly from overseas, who are accused of sitting on investment properties where windows remain dark throughout the year.

In August, the provincial government imposed a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers, and last month the federal government tightened mortgage insurance eligibility requirements. The city of Vancouver has focused its efforts on the rental market, where vacancies can get scooped up within hours while bidding wars drive up leasing costs.

Robertson estimated that more than 10,800 homes are empty and 10,000 more are not fully used. The city expects that instituting the tax will boost the supply of homes available for lease to the point that the vacancy rate increases to about 3.5 per cent from 0.6 per cent currently.

The city will allow certain exemptions to ensure that most homeowners who are Vancouver residents, including those who spend their winters at nearby ski resorts, won’t be affected. Principal homes, as well as properties that are rented for at least six months of the year on 30-day minimum leases, won’t be taxed.
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T

Tall4Life

Member
For how long would it have to be empty, though? I was under the impression that they rent it out to someone else or live in there for a few months and then leave.
 
Z

Zombine

Banned
Vacant homes are a gigantic problem here in the US. A fine like this would do wonders and scare banks and companies from "controlling" the market and helping to bring violence and drugs to vacant properties, which ultimately leads to neglected homes and lower home prices for people that live in the area. It's a huge culsterfuck here and the fines need to be more severe.
 
D

Dalek

Member
Man Steps On Rake said:
Vacant homes are a gigantic problem here in the US. A fine like this would do wonders and scare banks and companies from "controlling" the market and helping to bring violence and drugs to vacant properties, which ultimately leads to neglected homes and lower home prices for people that live in the area. It's a huge culsterfuck here and the fines need to be more severe.
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In the Bay Area it's the same as Vancouver. Foreign buyers just scooping up homes and real estate to sit there as investments-driving up rental prices.
 
L

Laekon

Member
More cities should look at what towns like Park City, UT does, place a few extra points on property tax of any place that isn't a primary residence.
 
C

CHC

Member
Pestilence11 said:
Chump change for those that it will affect. Needs to be 3x that, if not more.
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It will absolutely deter some, you'd be amazed how cheap many rich people are. I used to work in a luxury men's store and I've seen people getting all hissy over a $30 shipping charge on $5000 worth of clothes - all the while, the clothes are being shipped to avoid paying taxes on them in the first place.

Plus, even if people do pay, it's still revenue which the city can then use for its own betterment (hopefully).
 
P

Pestilence11

Member
CHC said:
It will absolutely deter some, you'd be amazed how cheap many rich people are. I used to work in a luxury men's store and I've seen people getting all hissy over a $30 shipping charge on $5000 worth of clothes - all the while, the clothes are being shipped to avoid paying taxes on them in the first place.

Plus, even if people do pay, it's still revenue which the city can then use for its own betterment (hopefully).
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That's true I suppose. More, maybe not 3x, would be better though.
 
BeforeU

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
How would they know its completely empty? I could be going there to spend couple of weeks in a year.
 
M

Madness

Member
Good. Let's bump the tax on foreign home buying upto 25% and throughout the lower mainland. Bring these moronic prices down. When two adults both making 60k a year(120k combined) struggle to afford a single family home, you know shit is fucked up. The NDP did a survey of a small neighborhood in a rich part of vancouver and found that 20 homes with a combined value of over $150 million had primary homeowners listed as students or homemakers collecting welfare or low income. Just crazy.
 
J

jayu26

Member
BeforeU said:
How would they know its completely empty? I could be going there to spend couple of weeks in a year.
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If a household does not generate garbage for a month, something is up...

I think they would just look at the utility bills for a house and apartment managers might be required by law to tattle-tale.
 
S

SRG01

Member
Madness said:
Good. Let's bump the tax on foreign home buying upto 25% and throughout the lower mainland. Bring these moronic prices down. When two adults both making 60k a year(120k combined) struggle to afford a single family home, you know shit is fucked up. The NDP did a survey of a small neighborhood in a rich part of vancouver and found that 20 homes with a combined value of over $150 million had primary homeowners listed as students or homemakers collecting welfare or low income. Just crazy.
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All they have to do to fix this is to fast-track changes to income testing such that it properly assesses foreign buyers, and to impose much larger down payments -- to the order of 60% or higher.
 
G

gutter_trash

Banned
CountAntonius said:
If anyone wants me to live in your house rent free to save you the fine I'll do it.
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hahaha this is a great idea!

those millionaires should let East-Vancouverites move in for free to avoid paying the fines LOL
jayu26 said:
If a household does not generate garbage for a month, something is up...

I think they would just look at the utility bills for a house and apartment managers might be required by law to tattle-tale.
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a month is too short, IMO it should be 6 months to be fair to Snow Birds

My parents are retired and own ONE home, spend 7 months of the year in Canada, 5 months abroad
 
D

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
This is idiotic, there's no way to prove this. Are they going to send people to check every single home in the city repeatedly throughout the year? How is enforcing this even going to be possible?
 
T

TurtleSnatcher

Member
Divvy said:
This is idiotic, there's no way to prove this. Are they going to send people to check every single home in the city repeatedly throughout the year? How is enforcing this even going to be possible?
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Neighbors and people will start reporting it. Fairly obvious when homes here are empty in Vancouver.
 
M

MikeyB

Member
Divvy said:
This is idiotic, there's no way to prove this. Are they going to send people to check every single home in the city repeatedly throughout the year? How is enforcing this even going to be possible?
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Water and electricity usage are already checked regularly.
 
D

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
Fair enough. If it's easy to monitor and will hold up in court when someone inevitably challenges it, then I'm all for it

I also think maybe property taxes should be raised, while other taxes could be lowered to compensate.
 
A

arts&crafts

Member
The mortgage situation is a way easier fix. They let non-residents get mortgages of 50% LTV without ANYTHING and i mean anything. Just a screenshot of your 50% down payment. 99% of the time it probably isn't even their money, it is borrowed or whatever. Which is why you see unemployed 18 year olds scooping up all the $5M properties.

The funny thing is, they wont let a resident do that deal with even a lower LTV.
 
C

cryptosporidium

Member
Fuck you Christy Clark and your incompetence on this issue

Hopefully municipalities work hard to try and fix the housing market the liberal party has let flourish. I'd like to move out one day and preferably before I go to get my masters
 
G

gutter_trash

Banned
arts&crafts said:
The mortgage situation is a way easier fix. They let non-residents get mortgages of 50% LTV without ANYTHING and i mean anything. Just a screenshot of your 50% down payment. 99% of the time it probably isn't even their money, it is borrowed or whatever. Which is why you see unemployed 18 year olds scooping up all the $5M properties.

The funny thing is, they wont let a resident do that deal with even a lower LTV.
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mortgage rules are pointless when millionaires buy homes in one payment
 
navii

navii

My fantasy is that my girlfriend was actually a young high school girl.
So just put on some automatic switches that use electricity and water daily and... profit? Not sure how to get past the garbage thing though.
 
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