[pbhjpbhj]

3 months is a long overseas assignment in most roles, I guess your company would have to pay you enough to make it worthwhile. That's not the city struggling for housing stocks problem.

Military deployment, seems reasonable, I wonder how many deployable military are living in these houses; also wouldn't the location remain your primary residence and so avoid the tax?

Wanting to live somewhere else? That's exactly what the tax is for - pay up or change your residence.

[sokoloff]

You asked for reasons why someone might choose to move out of their house for 6 months or longer rather than rent it out. I gave a few; nothing more. By all means, I support the local government's right to pass whatever laws/policies/incentives they want as representatives of the residents and a policy could be good on balance even if it screws over a few edge cases.

BTW, most of our overseas assignments are 2 years initially. 3 months seems more like a long business trip, not an overseas assignment to me.

[nommm-nommm]

You must be filthy rich to be able to keep an empty house for 2 years.

[sokoloff]

Not if your housing is covered overseas as part of the package (whether private or military).