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In Canada’s priciest real estate market, the provincial government is pitching in to pay the property taxes of million-dollar Vancouver homeowners and offering loans to first-time buyers for down payments.

Too bad for renters, who are among the taxpayers footing a $1.5 billion bill at least in the next few years.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vancouver renters are helping the provincial government aid million-dollar homeowners with their taxes Back to video

“This is a remarkably lousy policy,” said Thomas Davidoff, head of the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate. “You’re going to take money from people who don’t own homes and give it to people who own homes. That seems to be a step exactly in the wrong direction if the dominant issue is affordability.”

With a general election looming in May, British Columbia is under pressure to address housing affordability in Canada’s third-biggest city. In Vancouver, the cost of a typical home has surged to nearly $900,000, about 12 times median income.