Vancouver wields C$10,000-a-day fine in crackdown on empty homes

Vancouver

WANT to keep your million-dollar luxury pad in Vancouver empty? Get ready to pay C$10,000 (S$10,445) annually in extra taxes. Lie about it? That'll be C$10,000 a day in fines.

Canada's most-expensive property market, suffering from a near-zero supply of rental homes, announced the details of a new tax aimed at prodding absentee landlords into making their properties available for lease. The empty-home tax will take effect by Jan 1 and will be calculated at 1 per cent of the property's assessed value, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters at City Hall.