Both Mayor Gregor Robertson and uber condo marketer Bob Rennie, a key Robertson supporter, have come out in favour of imposing a housing speculation tax as a means to dampen the influence of investors in Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market.

At the end of a week that saw headlines about millennials being driven out of the city by high property prices, Robertson revealed that he has called on Premier Christy Clark to consider measures to get at the rising concern over foreign investment in the market.

“We definitely need taxation tools that discourage speculation on real estate,” Robertson said in an emailed statement Friday.

“Vancouver needs the B.C. Government to take action on creating a speculation tax and recognize that we need a fair and level playing field to make housing more affordable for residents in Vancouver, and throughout the province.”

Robertson made the statement the same day Rennie offered the same opinion in his annual luncheon speech to the Urban Development Institute, as part of a discussion about “getting the elephant in the room out on the table” with the issues driving the increasing unaffordability of Vancouver real estate.

“It’s speculation we should be concerned about,” Rennie said. “The conversations aren’t about foreign investment, the conversation is about China. That’s the elephant in the room.”

Rennie said the unaffordability of Vancouver real estate is becoming a “potentially toxic” situation, but in his much-anticipated address argued that the public and officials need to come to grips with affordability, which can’t be achieved by hanging on to single-family zoning in the city with the most expensive land in Canada.

Instead, Rennie believes the focus should be on creating higher-density housing forms that younger families find acceptable.

He brought up the idea of a speculation tax when he raised the question of whether government should tax foreign investment in real estate, which is increasingly being seen by the public as a key force driving detached-home prices over the $1 million mark, sparking heated debates over how to dampen its influence.

He said foreign investment is just one of many factors driving up prices; others include a diminishing supply of single-family homes, population growth and the transfer of wealth from baby boomers to their millennial children.

And Rennie argued taxing foreign investment in real estate would send the wrong message to trade partners such as India and Indonesia, without solving the affordability problem. If governments were willing to tax foreign investment in housing, maybe they would be willing to tax investment in the technology or manufacturing sectors.

Rennie suggested a speculation tax on a sliding scale, based on how soon a speculative buyer attempts to flip property after a purchase, in addition to the 23½-per-cent capital gains tax.

“I’m leaning in this direction for two reasons, “Rennie said. “I hate the racist undertone that is rampant out there, so I think we need a visible, measurable gesture.”

Secondly, Rennie said if speculative investment is a big contributor to unaffordability, “lets repatriate some of that money back to first time buyers.”

Money collected could be paid out as grants to first-time buyers who can prove they don’t have other help to make a down payment.

In a scrum after his speech, Rennie also argued that a tax on foreign buyers likely wouldn’t deter wealthy buyers.

“Do you think a $100,000 tax on a $3 million home is going to stop someone from buying it?”

depenner@vancouversun.comTwitter.com/derrickpenner