Pursuits
Vancouver Tax on Empty Homes to Target Near-Zero Rental Supply
- Typical detached house could face minimum C$20,000 annual levy
- More measures planned including tighter rules for Airbnb
The Vancouver skylinr
Photographer: Ben Nelms/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
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.