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The City of Vancouver is using data collected from empty homes declarations to build a detailed heat map which will reveal areas of the city that have the heaviest concentrations of vacant units and houses.

While the city’s data – derived from the self-declarations of 98 per cent of residential property owners in the city – is granular enough for a home-by-home depiction of Vancouver’s empty home syndrome, it is unclear what level of detail will be released to the public. City staff confirmed they are using the declarations for maps and analytics, but would not say if or when any such maps would be made publicly available.

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About 4,000 property owners have yet to submit their forms, having blown the city’s initial filing deadline of Feb. 2, according to city staff. That deadline has since been extended to March 5.

Vancouver’s one per cent empty homes tax, a nationwide-first, was approved by councillors in 2016 as a tool to spur owners to rent out their empty homes. Property owners are required to self-declare whether they have an empty home in the city and are thus subject to the one per cent tax. Any property owner that fails to declare by March 5 is subject to the tax plus a $250 fee. Declarations will be subject to an audit process and false declarations could result in fines of up to $10,000 per day, according to the city.