Vancouver Housing Changes Housing Rules; City Government to lssue Surtax Among House Owners to Help Local Economy

Vancouver's housing market will undergo some changes in their rules: property surtax will be asked from the residents in order to help the local economy.

The city explained that this surtax will be returned to the residents by improving the city's housing market which has been distorted by foreign investment, economics and business professors. According to experts, the reason why the city's income is not progressing is due to the unattractiveness of the city to invest. This makes Vancouver a less attractive target for investors.

The Simon Fraser University along with the other experts stated, "[Vancouver] a less attractive target for investors who wish to avoid taxation or park cash in residential real estate."

The city could generate $90 million from the 1.5 per cent surtax of the vacant properties alone in which owners are either untaxed or asked for limited taxable earnings in the entire country. If these kinds of people would pay taxes or pay higher than the taxed income, Vancouver could earn more and pay-back to the residents and distributing $3,000 to some hundred dollars to each resident.

University of British Columbia's Sauder School professor tom Davidoff said, "I think nobody would deny there's a problem here with people who want to live here not being able to afford it."

He added, "But the beauty of this proposal is that, as you make some money that can support locals, you can find out how large the extent of this problem."

However, with this kind of proposal, there would be a debate whether to what range would they implement the surtax among the residents. The most affected in this issue are those who are non-residents in the areas: the United States, Canada, Alberta, and elsewhere.

The issue will be those non-residents who have filed their tax and they have rented out their units and declared their income in Canada would be exempted from the surtax if their earnings are beyond or equal to the surtax.

For some, this surtax implementation is more political. As for some of the country's experts, they see it as something "political saleable." They suggested that this proposal should be discussed across all municipalities which will be greatly affected by this rule. Anyway, the whole citizens will be the ones who will be affected and will benefit from the income earned by the Vancouver's surtax law.