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Foreign investors and absentee homeowners in Vancouver should pay up in taxes, according to economists at universities in the region.

Buyers who aren’t paying taxes in Canada or investors who leave homes empty should be charged 1.5 per cent annually on the price of their property to support a housing affordability fund in the province, said a group of economists from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in a statement.

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The fund, which would raise at least $90 million per year, should support local residents priced out of Canada’s most expensive market as supply dwindles and prices surge to records that make a $1-million home the norm. The money should be paid directly to taxpayers who declare residency in the form of lump sum payments.