Related.James said that the SVT was “working,” with in the 2018/19 fiscal year, B.C. Average home prices declining, more rental home supply coming on stream and 99.8 per cent of British Columbians exempt from the tax.When asked by Glacier Media why projected revenue from the SVT is not expected to decline over the next few years, which it would if more homes were successfully being rented to avoid the tax, Minister James said this was because the tax rate for foreign buyers and satellite families increases after the first year, from 0.5 per cent of assessed value to two per cent. However, this response does not account for the consistency of projected revenues in year three.
Changes could be made to SVTDespite the government’s message that the tax is a success, the minister was clear that some of the finer details of the SVT legislation were still a moving target, and could be affected by her discussions with the mayors of affected municipalities.James said, “Part of the reason I’m meeting with the mayors is to hear from them first-hand the kinds of issues they want to bring forward from their communities. We will continue to review the tax — we’re always trying to improve our taxes so we will be looking at specific cases.”The minister said that the revenue being collected will go into the Housing Priority Initiatives Account, which is reported publicly, so that taxpayers can see how the funds are being spent to improve housing. “The minister of housing and myself have been calling on organizations to come forward with their ideas and contributions on affordable housing, and these dollars will help.
Housing affordability has been a key issue for the NDP since it took power two years ago. James said the speculation tax is part of its $6.5 billion plan to deliver 114,000 affordable homes in a decade.As of Sept. 3, James said almost 12,000 homeowners were paying the tax. It is applied in communities in and around Victoria and Vancouver, as well as other areas that have had hot housing markets including Kelowna and Nanaimo.' It is in fact targeting speculators, people living outside of B.C., and it's also helping to encourage homes to be used to house people,' James said.The Opposition Liberals questioned the effectiveness of the speculation tax, arguing it has done little to improve vacancy rates and has dampened development in communities.' We have locally elected mayors telling (Premier) John Horgan that the speculation tax is not working in their communities and that it is reducing the construction of new and affordable homes for families,' finance critic Shirley Bond said in a news release.James said more than 1.6 million tax declarations have been filed and 99.8 per cent of B.C.
Residents are exempt from the levy. A Ministry of Finance official said 17,600 property owners have not yet provided speculation tax declarations.Of those paying the tax, the province says just over 4,500 were foreign owners, about 3,000 were classified as so-called satellite families, some 1,500 were Canadians living outside the province, and about 2,400 were B.C. Satellite families are defined as those that earn most of their income outside of Canada.British Columbia residents paid an average speculation tax of $2,557, while other Canadians paid $3,540. Foreign property owners paid $5,530 on average and satellite families paid $6,333.James was scheduled to meet in Vancouver on Thursday with mayors about the speculation tax, including some who say it hurts development and punishes people with second properties.Prof. Tsur Somerville, a real estate expert at the University of British Columbia's Sauder school of business, said the minister's meeting with mayors was necessary to exchange ideas.' One of the challenges for the government is there's a really large variation across jurisdictions in terms of exposure to vacant homes that have positive or negative effects on the local economy,' he said. 'For the more tourism-focused areas, those vacant homes are actually part of the local economy in ways that might not be the same as downtown Vancouver.'
The provincial government announced Thursday the speculation and vacancy tax has exceeded targets set in last year's budget. To date, the.
West Kelowna and the tiny Vancouver-area village of Belcarra have demanded exemptions from the tax.James said her meeting with mayors could result in changes to the tax this fall, but she made no promises.She said she understands there is opposition to the tax but 'we're going to do what's necessary to be able to address the housing crisis and we're not going to shy away from that.' Jason Turcotte, vice-president of Vancouver's Cressey Development Corp., said efforts to lobby the government to drop plans to start charging the tax on vacant development land have so far been unsuccessful.' You can't force someone to develop something when it doesn't make sense,' he said. 'Sometimes in our business we have to wait and hold.'