Gregor Robertson is proposing a tax on owners of empty homes.
Vancouver mayor proposes punitive tax on empty homes - NEWS 1130
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is again pushing for a tax solution to the city’s affordability problems, outlining an idea for a punitive levy on owners who let their homes sit empty rather than put them on the very tight rental market.
“It is an approach to get people renting out empty homes,” he told reporters. “If we can create that momentum then it creates more rental housing and obviously that’s income to the people who have empty homes. Basically they are sitting on those homes as a business holding so they should be taxed more like a business than a residence.”
Robertson says he’d “love to have thousands of those homes in the rental market right now.”
The mayor admits there may be privacy concerns in determining which homes are sitting empty and he wants city staff to work on the issue.
He says it would be “easy” for the province to enact an empty home tax and he is pushing for quick action from Victoria.
“We are going to take any action we can at the City level but our powers are very limited with housing. That’s why we are in this predicament. We are doing everything we can and we are looking at the next steps with empty homes but we absolutely need more support from the BC government and the federal government to deal with a market this hot.”
Robertson didn’t give any details on what the city’s “next steps” would be.