The City of Vancouver is reminding residents to submit their empty home tax paperwork by Friday's deadline, but it's keeping mum on how many homeowners have declared empty homes.

The city says 89 per cent of residents have already submitted their declarations, and it expects the remainder will come in by the end of the week.

Residents who don't file the paperwork will automatically be subject to the one per cent tax of the property's 2017 assessed value, as well as a $250 fine.

Vancouver the first city in Canada to pursue an empty homes tax to tackle lack of rental housing, others looking to follow suit, says <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorGregor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MayorGregor</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/vanpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#vanpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/tTuMLSku3a">pic.twitter.com/tTuMLSku3a</a> —@MaryseZeidler

"We strongly encourage the remaining 11 per cent of Vancouverites who are homeowners to file," said Mayor Gregor Robertson.

The mayor said he's heard interest from other cities around the world who are following the tax rollout to see what effect it may have, including Sydney, Toronto and Victoria.

Small vacancy rate bump

The city implemented the tax, the first of its kind in Canada, to encourage homeowners to make empty properties available for rent in order to increase Vancouver's vacancy rate.

Staff said the vacancy rate currently stands at 0.7 per cent — an increase of 0.1 per cent in December, although staff acknowledged it couldn't confirm what may have caused the increase.

Data presented to council last June showed there were 25,495 homes that were unoccupied or occupied by temporary and/or foreign residents in 2016 — a 98 per cent increase from 2001.

Patrice Impey, the city's chief financial officer, said the city has yet to analyze the data to see how many of the declarations that have come in so far are for empty homes.

"We do expect to do that very early in the spring, once we have it all together and have validated it," Impey said.

That's silly. Of course true that the remaining 11% are likely to be empty-heavy, but why can't the public get info on the first 89%? Just don't see a valid purpose in protecting public from misinterpreting data -- would hardly be 1st time. —@TomDavidoff

The city isn't sure how much the new tax will bring in — but Impey said it expects the tax will at least cover the $7.4 million cost of the program.

However, she downplayed the income the tax will generate and emphasized that the city's goal is to create new housing.

Audit program launched

Impey said the city has already launched an audit process for the program, which will include random as well as targeted audits for suspicious properties.

But architect and urbanist Michael Geller says there's more the city can do to track those who are trying to avoid paying the tax.

Geller said some people have sold empty secondary properties now that the tax has been implemented, while others will just pay the tax.

City staffer Patrice Impey says city has initiated audit process to ensure compliance with the tax <a href="https://t.co/7V4YmdQNF7">pic.twitter.com/7V4YmdQNF7</a> —@MaryseZeidler

"I think there will be a very small number who do admit it," Geller said. "But the majority of people who have empty homes right now are looking at creative ways around it."

Geller suggested the city garbage collectors could help find empty homes, because they don't produce any waste. He also suggested a Crime Watch-type program for neighbours to call in suspected empty homes to the city.

As for the slight rise in vacancy rates since the tax has been declared, Geller said he suspected it had more to do with new rental units that have become available.