British Columbia housing economists are proposing a tax on foreign property owners who leave their homes vacant in Vancouver's tight housing market. UBC real estate professor Thomas Davidoff says the proposed 1.5-per-cent surcharge on vacant, foreign-owned properties would encourage owners to rent out the homes rather than pay the tax. (Davidoff is calling on B-C Premier Christy Clark to call a housing summit with mayors, politicians and developers to find ways to ease the housing crunch.)

Date: 2016-01-18
Placeline: VICTORIA.
Source: The Canadian Press
Length: 19 seconds

Transcript Prediction: << you don't have to pay this tax all you have to do is turn your vacant unit into a rental unit and Wawa you get to claim the rental income as a credit against the surcharge so that's a pretty strong incentive for people who want to invest here to turn vacant units into rental units which is basically adding housing stock for people who live in work here >>

Earbank_2016-01-18_Real-Estate-BC_9257