Under the new rules, homes that are not occupied for at least six months of the year are subject to a tax of one per cent of the property’s assessed value. The deadline to rent out empty dwellings was July 1.
Fazli said many of the people he has talked to are thinking of renting or selling their properties. He recently met with a woman who owns three empty properties in Vancouver — and says one of them is now listed for rent, another will be listed shortly and she is thinking of selling the third.
“This is a scenario of someone who is kind of in a panic now and needs to rent them out,” he said. […]
amazing
Why were they empty?
they’re meant to be investment properties, bought, left empty, and then sold a year or few later for huge profit as housing values continue to rise. it’s a massive part of the bc housing bubble, and why despite so much new construction it’s still so difficult to find rental housing
the fact that these landlords are panicking because they might have to actually use their housing properties as housing rather than finance capital is deeply funny
See THIS is a good idea to do, because far too many people leave property vacant rather than let it be used.
they’re essentially hoarding empty properties to drive the price up, and everyone suffers for it. now it’s not profitable anymore. good job, canada.
I don’t understand how this is supposed to work. An individual person or group doesn’t benefit from buying property to make the price go up unless they manage to get a monopoly, right?
Also, what’s the logic between not renting them out? Is it about being able to sell on a moment’s notice?
Most likely, but also renting is a headache that often doesn’t have great margins, and renters can damage the property. That they’re even able to do this, however, suggests that there are still issues with insufficient housing construction.
My family used to own a set of small storefronts in the middle of a small town, which we rented to a number of small businesses, including an old-fashioned barber shop there since before I was born. It wasn’t really a net source of income.