Vancouver Wields C$10,000-a-Day Fine in Crackdown on Empty Homes

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Nice to see $39 million roll into Vancouver's coffers from the Empty Homes Tax. And be careful would-be evaders, sounds like the city has some resources to investigate:


Vancouver empty homes tax nets another $39M as number of vacant properties drop, city says

BY SEAN BOYNTON GLOBAL NEWS
Posted November 20, 2019 7:02 pm

Vancouver’s empty homes tax continues to be a revenue generator for the city despite drawing from a shrinking number of vacant homes, the latest report from the city finds.


Released Wednesday, the report reveals that $39.4 million in revenue was raised during the 2018 tax year, which was collected from the owners of 1,989 vacant properties.

That’s a 22 per cent drop from the number of vacant properties taxed in 2017, when 2,538 homes generated $38 million in revenue...

...“For those who choose to keep their properties unoccupied, we appreciate their contributions to the funds that are supporting various, much-needed affordable housing initiatives across the city.”

Another 892 property owners were charged the tax after non-compliance audits were performed on an additional 8,457 properties between Nov. 2, 2018, and Nov. 1, 2019. Those audits raised an additional $22.1 million.

That’s way up from the same period a year ago, when $6.2 million was raised from 331 property owners charged after audits on 6,231 homes....(bold mine)

https://globalnews.ca/news/6197311/vancouver-empty-homes-tax-revenue-2019/

And close to a billion decrease in property transfer tax revenue for the province plus a couple hundred million decrease in development fees for the city and transfer of property tax burden from luxury to affordable homes ^^ Don't worry though I'm sure the $39 million will cover the losses.



Note that of the 2019-2022 Capital Plan for Vancouver, 90% of the funding for new assets (1.2 billion) comes from development.
https://vancouver.ca/your-government/capital-plan-2019-2022.aspx

Affordable housing initiatives cost the city over $600 million a year. $39 million isn't going to make a dent.