In an attempt to deal with an affordable housing crisis, the Dutch housing minister recently proposed a law that would have allowed municipalities to force some property owners to sell their homes only to low and middle-income earners. The problem the policy is trying to fix is one that’s particularly acute in Canada.
i.e. own 2 homes, property tax for ALL homes owned doubles. Own 3 homes, pay 4x property tax. etc. Homes should not be hoarded. And corporations are definitely not exempt, except perhaps before first sale (i.e. they constructed the property) or demolition sale (buying multiple properties for demolition to be able to construct denser units)
Either way somebody’s gotta live and work there to avoid the tax. No “students” owning multi-million dollar mansions.
And then use the tax income to fund construction of government housing, to rent out at cost
Yup, I’ve always advocated for a punitive tax on owning more than one residential home. Start with corporations, 1% extra tax on the value of the property each year, increasing at 2x the rate of inflation each year. Two of three years after that, then apply it to privately owned second homes… Within 10 years, the annual tax on any second, third, fourth homes will be greater than any possible profits, and those houses will come on the market as various properties pass into not being profitable investments anymore.
And as others have said, use the collected tax for affordable housing. The best thing to do is for this money to be used to buy condos in existing buildings, and place families there, to prevent “ghettoization” of neighbourhoods.
Why not ban anything past a primary home? It’s like at a wedding where everyone gets to eat first before going for seconds.
I guess it’s a political non-starter given the number of people who own more than one home…
A grandfather clause could be added, so that ‘from now on’ people can’t buy more than 1 home. But there are plenty of less severe ways to fix the problem. A lack of solutions isn’t the issue, anyway. The problem is that rich people who control countries don’t want to fix housing problems, since they are often the people benefiting.
There can be some good reasons to own multiple homes, so rather than banning it you tax it. That way people can still do it and the city gets more funding for allowing it. Those that can’t do the tax will sell down.
I’d like to see that happen, but I’d also like prohibitively high taxes for homes over 2000 sq’. Nobody needs a house that big, and if we’re destroying natural habitat to fit ultra large homes, then someone should be paying heavily for it.