24 April 2018

Robertson says the main goal of this tax was solving the issue of a near-zero vacancy rate in the city.

The recent data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows that rental vacancy rate here was only slightly up in a year to 0.8%.

In Robertson’s opinion, it’s still unknown if the new tax improved the rental properties availability, but the city is working on better methods of data collection concerning the impact of such changes, as this tax.

Almost 60% of all the properties affected by the tax represented condos.

The tax amount varied from $1,500 to $250,000, and the largest payment came from a $25-million house.

The average tax due was below $10,000 and Robertson says those who don’t pay the tax will face a fine in addition to the next year tax amount. Almost 99% of homeowners completed an empty homes tax declaration.

The overall cost of the tax implementation reached $7.5 million. The annual operating costs are $2.5 million.