B.C. NDP leader David Eby says a re-elected NDP government would tax finished but unsold empty condominiums and raise existing speculation and vacancy taxes.
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British Columbia NDP leader David Eby announced Friday that his party would introduce a new tax targeting finished condominiums that remain empty for extended periods, linking the proposal to concerns about housing affordability ahead of the snap election he called for Oct. 24.
Speaking at a campaign stop in Burnaby, Eby said the proposed condominium tax would apply to completed units left vacant for more than a year, and he argued the policy would push newly built inventory toward occupancy rather than allowing it to sit idle while prices rise.
Eby said the NDP would base the new tax on what he described as a “damming” report from Real Property Data estimating that thousands of unsold condos valued at $4.4 billion are empty across Metro Vancouver.
Under the NDP plan, Eby said the condo tax would start at two per cent, then increase by one percentage point for each additional year the finished units remained unsold, with Eby saying the measure could “unlock about 5,000 condos.”
The NDP leader said the intent was to improve affordability for renters and buyers by intervening in what he characterized as developer behaviour that keeps units unavailable while households face high costs.
Eby also pledged to raise B.C.’s existing speculation and vacancy tax, proposing the rate would increase to two per cent for domestic owners and to five per cent for foreign owners, building on a policy introduced under a prior NDP government.
The speculation and vacancy tax was brought in to encourage vacant homes to return to the market and to ensure foreign owners or those with foreign income contribute more to B.C.’s tax system, according to the details cited in Eby’s remarks.
B.C.’s speculation and vacancy tax applies across municipalities in Metro Vancouver, the Capital Regional District in Greater Victoria, and 26 other municipalities, with Eby’s proposal set to increase those rates rather than replace the existing framework.
Friday’s announcement comes as questions continue about a joint federal-provincial plan announced in June with Prime Minister Mark Carney to purchase more than 2,220 vacant condominiums in B.C. and convert them into affordable housing.
When the federal-provincial plan was first announced, Eby said additional details were expected later in the fall, but he made Friday’s housing taxation promises without referencing any timeline for the condo-purchase file.
Eby’s comments were delivered during the first week of the snap election campaign, and the Conservatives’ interim leader Lorne Doerkson has been holding interviews from his home riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin, with expectation that he would be in the Lower Mainland on Friday, as campaign activity begins to take shape.
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