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So far, the left-leaning COPE and Green parties have supported such a tax.

The group is also asking the parties to back a 15-to-20-per-cent surcharge on the price of a home for a non-resident buyer, which Macdonald said may not curb speculative purchases from out of the country but will help pay for infrastructure and public services like transportation and education.

But it is hard to determine whether a home is owned by a Canadian resident and why it is sitting empty, according to Bing Thom Architects’ Andy Yan, whose analysis of “non-resident occupied units” in the 2011 Census found roughly 15% of all downtown Vancouver condos were vacant.

The blog is “a documentation of what happens when Vancouver real estate enters the global real estate market,” but there may be factors other than absentee owners that contribute to the rubble-strewn yards and the decaying homes it showcases, Yan said.

As aging baby boomers begin downsizing to condos in other parts of the city “perhaps a good number” of their single-family homes are sitting empty between real estate deals, Yan said.

Still, this phenomenon could be the “edge of the new normal,” as Vancouver becomes a “resort city” where people from around the world invest their money in home ownership.

Regardless of why they are emptying, these neighbourhoods were centred around public schools and built for families, Yan said.

The planning of these neighbourhoods is part of “an incredible legacy that previous generations of Vancouverites have given us and the issue is how do we build upon that heritage and not squander it.

“It’s not something to be angry about, but to be considered and to really think about what you want in your city.”