No, not our government, the provincial government of British Columbia:
Vancouver slaps 15% tax on foreign house buyers in effort to cool market
Foreigners looking to purchase a home in Vancouver now face an additional tax of 15%, as Canadian authorities seek to temper a heated housing market that ranks as one of the world’s least affordable.
The tax, which came into effect on Tuesday, will be levied on all home buyers in metro Vancouver who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The measure will also apply to corporations that are not registered in Canada or which are controlled by foreigners.
Announcing the measure, the provincial government of British Columbia said the tax was intended to help cool the city’s red-hot property market, where demand from foreign investors – many of them from China – has helped push the cost of a detached home to C$1.56m ($1.2m) in June, a 39% jump from a year earlier.
“There is evidence now that suggests that very wealthy foreign buyers have raised the price, the overall price of housing for people in British Columbia,” Christy Clark, the province’s premier, told reporters recently. …
More background here. Hmmmm.
In related news, we just passed another one of those milestones that seem to be coming so rapidly lately:
House values hit $600k across NZ – Auckland nears $1m
New Zealand house values have just exceeded $600,000 for the first time while Auckland values climbed towards $1 million.
…
New Quotable Value data out at noon today:
• National NZ average home value now $602,434
• Auckland average home value $992,207
• Hamilton values up fastest: 31.5% since last July
• Christchurch values only up 3.5% annually
House prices are still going up, wages are essentially flat, and our government does nothing but tinker at the edges. Next year, are we going to vote for more of the same?
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