Absentee-owned vacant homes are a problem in housing-starved Vancouver

Image from Flickr user Stewart used under a Attribution License

Our neighbors in Vancouver are struggling with a housing shortage made worse by buy-and-hold investors who leave their properties empty.

Vancouver prepared to go it alone on vacant home tax, mayor says

About 12.5 per cent of Vancouver’s condos and one per cent of single-detached homes and townhomes – some 10,800 in all – sit empty through the year, according to a recent report that relied on B.C. Hydro data.

Robertson plans to ask Premier Christy Clark to create a “residential vacant” property class through B.C. Assessment so the city could tack extra taxes on empty or under-used homes. But if he does not hear back from the province by Aug. 1 on the request, the city will forge ahead on its own, Robertson said.

Source: Vancouver Sun