VANCOUVER—The number of vacant properties in Vancouver has fallen by 15 per cent in one year, and the city says just over half of the newly occupied homes have been returned to the rental market.

Initial statistics show 922 properties were listed as vacant in 2018, compared with 1,085 in 2017, the first year Vancouver’s empty-homes tax was in force.

Vancouver voted in 2016 to become the first Canadian city to collect an empty-homes tax, charging one per cent of a home’s assessed value if the owners are not living in it or are renting it out for less than six months.

Homeowners who failed to submit a declaration by this year’s deadline of Feb. 4 face a late payment fee of $250 or a fine amounting to one per cent of the assessed value of the property, if it remains undeclared.

The empty-homes tax was developed to encourage homeowners to make unused properties available to tenants who face a near-zero vacancy rate in Vancouver.

Andy Yan, an urban planner who is the director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, said the decrease in empty homes is a sign the policy is having its intended effect.

However, the policy is still in the early stages, and Yan still has concerns about the declaration process.

“I still have some concerns, (like) does it really capture all empty homes in terms of loopholes and non-reporting, but that’s always the inherent nature of these types of taxes,” Yan said.

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says the statistics show empty properties are shifting to the rental market.

“The year-over-year numbers are very encouraging,” Stewart says in a news release.

An increase in the one per cent penalty is also being considered. Stewart says that would make the tax “even more effective in driving additional affordable housing to the market.” During his election campaign, Stewart promised to triple the empty-homes tax — but the one per cent amount will remain for 2018, according to the city.

Ninety-seven per cent of owners made their property status declaration by the deadline, but the city says an update to the program means those who missed the Feb. 4 cut-off will have the option of making a late declaration online after paying the $250 penalty.

The largest concentration of vacant properties is in the downtown area, where more than one per cent of homes are unoccupied.

The 2018 property status statistics are expected to change as the city’s audit program continues, people make their late declarations, property owners appeal and complaints are received and resolved, the news release says.

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Vancouver’s rental vacancy rate decreased to 0.8 per cent in 2018, down from 0.9 per cent the year before, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s annual rental market survey.

With files from Jen St. Denis

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