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We shouldn’t tax buildings in a housing crisis (www.straight.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In their current form, our property taxes discourage much-needed new housing—while doing little to deter those who are actively hoarding land and homes. We need an overhaul if we’re serious about housing affordability, and luckily, we don’t have to look far for the answer.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm a young(er) homeowner in Vancouver, It's a 70 year old house.

I suppose the city would do an averaging thing where they'd say people whose assessments are a 50/50 split between land and improvements will not have a change in their taxes. People whose assessments are mostly based on improvements will have their taxes slashed to near 0, people whose assessments are mostly land will have their taxes nearly double.

My assessment puts almost all the value on the land (95% land, 5% house). So I think we'd be in the nearly doubling group.

We would not sell our house if our taxes doubled. Would we convert our basement to a rental suite? No, probably still not. Would empty nesters? I hope so.

I think I'd support this proposal, but I will say it again, we have to stop paying anyone over the age of 55 to indefinitely postpone their property taxes.

We need to incentivize the construction of housing suitable for elderly empty nesters. So that they can move out of their dangerous houses, and into single level units that they can thrive in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I appreciate your support despite the negative effects it would have on you.

We need more density and it's not going to come fast enough if sitting on prime land is cheap.