B.C.'s New Foreign Buyer Tax
The B.C. Provincial government has implemented new legislation that they feel will help decrease the amount of foreign investment in B.C.'s housing market while helping to slow and possibly reduce the uncontrollable increase in housing prices across Vancouver. In B.C. a one-time, 15% tax starting August 2nd, 2016 will be applied to any buyer who is not a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident.
Opposed to this, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson wanted a Vacant Home Tax that would be ongoing (monthly), and would tax ANY vacant home that was being purchased and sold to make money solely on the property's appreciation in value.
What's the difference? The Foreign Buyer Tax will discourage anyone buying from another country and will just move all future investment in our province's market to a different province. The Vacancy Tax would still encourage outside investment because all they would have to do is have someone renting their property (giving more options to people currently unable to buy!). It would remove the lazy investors who just sit on a property keeping it vacant (the real problem) and maintain investment from those actually looking to rent their purchased properties.
There is no doubt that our already cooling housing market will see significant changes because of this new Foreign Buyer Tax, specifically in the Vancouver area.
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