Article content

Vancouver city staff want to look at changing the city’s empty homes tax, the first of its kind in North America, and that could mean increasing the tax or charging a different rate for foreign owners.

In a report before council this week, city staff seek council’s approval on immediate bylaw amendments to “improve the effectiveness of the empty homes tax,” and to move ahead with further review and consultation on additional changes, including changes to the tax rate.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vancouver may consider different empty-home tax rate for foreign owners Back to video

The tax, a levy of an extra one per cent of the property’s assessed value for the year, targets homes that are empty or only used part-time. With Vancouver’s rental vacancy rate remaining close to zero for several years now, the primary purpose of the policy, the city said, was to encourage increase the number of units available for rent.

The first year of the empty home tax is expected to generate $38 million in gross revenue, most of which the city has already collected. But, the staff report says, “While this money will be spent on affordable housing initiatives, the desired outcome of the EHT was conversion to rental use, not revenue generation. Given the number of property owners that chose to pay the tax instead of renting their property, it is possible that the current tax rate is not enough of an incentive to rent.”