Experts are still left to speculate how B.C.鈥檚 incoming speculation tax will impact properties on the North Shore.
Starting in 2018, vacant secondary homes in large urban centres will be charged 0.5 per cent on their assessed value. In 2019, foreign owners and satellite families (where the family lives here but working parent and source of income lives elsewhere and does not file taxes here) will pay two per cent annually. Owners whose primary residence is elsewhere in Canada will pay one per cent. British Columbians captured by the tax will be billed 0.5 per cent.
Primary residences of British Columbians are exempt, as are second homes valued at less than $400,000, and properties rented out at least six months a year. The province has also spared vacation properties outside major urban areas like the Gulf Islands and Bowen Island.
Finance Minister Carole James estimates 99 per cent of British Columbians won鈥檛 pay the tax at all, but even with exemptions in place, the province expects it will bring in $200 million in revenues per year.
Someone who owns a $5-million home but pays little or no income tax to the province could be paying about $100,000 a year in speculation tax.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of money,鈥� said Tom Davidoff, a UBC economist whose work the NDP borrowed from in designing the speculation tax.
The goal of the tax, Davidoff said, is to counteract the relatively low property taxes we pay in B.C. compared to income tax.
鈥淚 think inviting people to come use 麻豆传媒映画as a playground for the rich is a mistake and I think it鈥檚 a very big, long-run problem,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he message was 鈥楥ome here to buy real estate. Don鈥檛 try to make a living here.鈥欌��
Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University鈥檚 City Program, is waiting eagerly to see how the province will administer the tax, particularly when it comes to identifying satellite families.
Safe to say though, a lot of tax money will be coming from West Vancouver, he added. 鈥� An analysis of census data by Yan last year despite an average price of a detached home at $3 million, and with higher levels of child poverty in the toniest neighbourhoods.
鈥淕od knows I鈥檇 love access to their data,鈥� Yan said. 鈥淲hen you have these multimillionaires that are just declaring $95 of income, I mean, come on here. What is going on?鈥�
And, according to the last census, . During a recent walk through Dundarave and Ambleside, Yan said he was struck by the number of vacant storefronts.
鈥淗ow much of it is the fact they鈥檙e servicing a population that鈥檚 smaller now than when those neighbourhoods were first created? This type of emptiness does have an effect on things like local retail,鈥� he said.
Developer and 麻豆传媒映画Courier columnist Michael Geller said he鈥檚 softened on the notion of a tax after being outright opposed.
鈥淚 have a fundamental problem with the government violating that old Magna Carta notion that a man鈥檚 home is his castle to do with as he pleases, but I acknowledge we鈥檙e past that now,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have a housing crisis and I can accept why government may want to tax vacant properties in an effort to either bring them into use as rental housing or to generate revenue to support other affordable housing,鈥� he said.
But, he warned, West 麻豆传媒映画has very little housing stock that would be deemed 鈥渁ffordable鈥� even if it were to be brought into the rental market.
Yan agreed.
鈥淲ith some of those mansions, they鈥檙e probably so expensive, you鈥檙e probably not going to get a renter,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut on the other side, this is one way of capturing that wealth that鈥檚 being poured into places like West 麻豆传媒映画and then using it to frankly pay for amenities, which might be that affordable housing.鈥�
B.C. Liberal Opposition leader Andrew Wilkinson has warned the tax could put a chill on development of new homes if it is applied to properties with construction pending, something Gellar said he struggles to believe the NDP would do. He has an infill housing and heritage restoration plan for a vacant Ambleside property already approved by the District of West 麻豆传媒映画but, he said, the planning department has told him it will take 15 weeks before they can even look at his building permit application.
鈥淩ather than just phone the building permit department once a week, we鈥檒l call them every day,鈥� Gellar said with a laugh. 鈥淭here鈥檚 sort of an irony that you鈥檙e forced to pay a tax on a home that鈥檚 empty because you鈥檙e waiting for permits.鈥�
