Ep. 197: Vancouver: A Real Estate Tragedy Unfolds
Guest: Michael Geller
The tax upon tax upon tax that was implemented to make housing in BC, and in Vancouver in particular, affordable is having the opposite effect.
It all started with the City of Vancouver’s Empty Home Tax which was designed to bring up to ten thousand empty homes into the rental market.
The prediction appears to have significantly missed the mark. Currently the City of Vancouver has devoted more than $10 million dollars to a program that may turn a few hundred empty or under utilized homes into rental units.
The provincial government of Christy Clark jumped on the bandwagon and imposed a Foreign Buyers Tax which is being challenged in the courts as unlawful and discriminatory. The John Horgan government, sensing the time was right to continue to meddle in the market, added not one but two new taxes with the objective of cooling the market and making housing more affordable.
It’s true, the market for homes over $3 million has cooled while at the same time, it has set the condo market ablaze making the only affordable housing less affordable.
We invited planner, developer and commentator Michael Geller to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the crisis that continues to unfold in BC’s real estate markets.
