Vancouver hopes 1 per cent annual tax on empty homes will ease rental crisis
![Heritage homes line a street in Vancouver's expensive Westside district. Photo: Ian Young](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/images/methode/2016/11/18/152ecaba-ad47-11e6-a45e-e639c32a4ac5_1280x720.jpg?itok=9cIE8zLy)
Vancouver has become the first city in Canada to approve a tax on empty homes, as officials in the city scramble to address the spinoff effects of an overheated housing market that ranks as one of the world’s least affordable.
On Wednesday, Vancouver city council voted to move forward with a 1 per cent annual tax on homes that are not principal residences and which are left empty for more than six months a year.
The tax is aimed at bolstering the city’s meagre supply of rental stock. Vancouver’s rental vacancy rate currently stands at 0.6 per cent – resulting in some of the highest rents in the country – while city data suggests that more than 10,800 homes are sitting empty and another 10,000 are left vacant for long periods of time.
An increase of 2,000 rental properties would raise the rental vacancy rate almost sixfold to 3.5 per cent, according to estimates by the city.
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