<story><title>Vancouver Tax on Empty Homes to Target Near-Zero Rental Supply</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-14/vancouver-tax-on-empty-homes-to-target-near-zero-rental-supply</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>djfergus</author><text>There is a lot of speculation that Chinese buyers are driving up the Canadian market. I have no insight to whether this is true but leaving homes vacant does correlate with my observations - Asian and especially Chinese property buyers value a home that has never been lived in significantly higher than a &amp;#x27;used&amp;#x27; home. This is regardless of age. From my understanding its a combination of feng shui&amp;#x2F;superstition (bad spirits!) and lack of taste&amp;#x2F;trust (interior decor preferences, dodgy renovations).&lt;p&gt;I saw this a lot in the Malaysian market during the previous frothy years until 2014, many many vacant units, zero ability to negotiate rent - owners were going to get their asking price (rent or sale) or sit on an empty house&amp;#x2F;apartment. They were making ~10% a year so who can blame them. Then the Malaysian government slapped a retroactive (!) punitive capital gains tax on foreigners. In addition Selangor state (think most of the Kuala Lumpur suburban area) banned foreigners from buying landed, non-strata property.&lt;p&gt;Instead of lowering prices, this had the effect of driving the transactions to almost zero (very few forced sellers), very little property over RM1m (the minimum limit for foreigner purchase) sells these days. Lots of RE agents are losing their jobs&amp;#x2F;driving uber to make ends meet. The foreign (predominantly Chinese) owners have deep pockets and holding power. The coming years will be interesting if it continues though.&lt;p&gt;I look forward to reading the economic thesis papers in the future on whether this Canadian measure works and what the unintended 2nd&amp;#x2F;3rd order effects are. Its fun when govt&amp;#x27;s experiment like this, good grist for the mill for economic&amp;#x2F;psychological research.</text></comment>
<story><title>Vancouver Tax on Empty Homes to Target Near-Zero Rental Supply</title><url>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-14/vancouver-tax-on-empty-homes-to-target-near-zero-rental-supply</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jacquesm</author><text>Until 2010, in NL in areas with housing shortages if a house was not occupied for 12 months it was legal to squat. This was a pretty good deterrent against &amp;#x27;empty homes&amp;#x27;.</text></comment>