Vancouver Condo Info

Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson has proposed that Vancouver implement a speculator tax to deter condo speculation. In this case speculation is defined by the condo unit being left vacant rather than by flipping or simply taking on more debt than you can handle based on the hope of future gains.

Robertson justifies the need for this tax by referring to the BC Hydro grow-op study that found 18,000 vacant condos in Vancouver, which is equal to half the total number of condos in the Downtown Westend. This number is said not to include units that are part-time occupied as second homes or vacation properties, only units that use no electricity through the year.

The obvious difficulty comes in defining the criteria by which condos would be taxed at the business rate. Taxes on speculation are often based on ‘flipping’ rather than holding an empty condo. How do you determine if a condo truly is empty? Would there be penalties for ‘faking’ occupancy? What are your thoughts on this proposal, would it help or hurt the Vancouver housing market?

From todays Vancouver Province, higher assessments on some single family homes leads to a jump in property tax bills:

Mario Tomsich is one of thousands of single-family Vancouver homeowners whose property taxes have surged an average of 14.2 per cent, seven times the rate of inflation.

“The taxes are just skyrocketing because of the value of the property,” the 75-year-old Vancouver landlord said yesterday. “If it keeps going like this, I would have to do something about it. People have been forced to sell their homes.”

…

Vancouver budget director Annette Klein said the 1.23-per-cent tax increase approved by city council was not reflected for single-family dwellings because their assessed values shot up 30 per cent.

They jumped 15 per cent above the average for the residential class, including condos. Property taxes are based on assessed values.

“Single-family homes are picking up more of the overall [tax] revenue,” Klein said. “They are compensating for slower growth in condos.”

This is the first I’ve heard of slower growth in condo property tax - is there an imbalance in the system and should we expect higher tax rates on condos in the future?