VANCOUVER – The City of Vancouver announced on Nov. 29 that its Empty Homes Tax has generated $38 million in revenue in its first year.
According to a city release, close to 184,000 declarations were submitted, representing 99 per cent of all residential property owners in Vancouver.
Out of the 186,043 properties, 178,120 were occupied, 5,385 were exempt and 2,538 were vacant. The majority of vacant and exempt properties were condominiums at 60 per cent, with single-family homes at 34 per cent and two per cent were multi-family homes. The largest number of exempt and vacant properties were in downtown Vancouver.
Approximately $21 million of the Empty Homes Tax has been collected to date.
The tax was developed to reduce pressure on Vancouver’s rental housing market by returning under-utilized and empty properties to the long-term rental market and was approved by city council on Nov. 16, 2016.
Revenue generated by the tax must be used for affordable housing initiatives within the city.
Total revenue collected from the tax will go to one-time implementation costs of $7.5 million, as well as to the $2.5 million of first-year operating costs for the program. Earlier in the year, city council also allocated the first $8 million in tax revenue to affordable housing initiatives.
The declaration period for the second year of the tax is now open and the deadline to declare is Feb. 4, 2019.
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