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Vancouver will have a levy on empty homes in time for the 2017 tax season, and neighbours will be leaned on to help enforce it, Mayor Gregor Robertson and city staff told reporters today.

The annual tax will apply to anyone who self-declares an empty home on their tax bill and it will likely be 0.5 to two per cent of the home’s assessed value, according to a staff report prepared in advance of a council vote on the matter next week.

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The empty homes tax would be a first in Canada and comes amid a near-zero rental vacancy rate in the city and on the heels of a city-commissioned study that claimed to have found 10,800 homes sitting empty year-round.

“This empty homes tax is first and foremost about bringing rental homes back onto the market,” Robertson said.

Staff plan to rely on a snitch-and-audit system to make sure homeowners comply with the tax. With Vancouver homes selling at an average of $1.1 million apiece, a two per cent amounts to $22,000, or $1,835 per month. That’s far less than such a home would generate in monthly rent, but the levy is hefty enough that some homeowners may try to dodge it.