[rishav_sharan]

Did it have any effect? From what I hear, Vancouver has one of the costliest real state markets in Canada

[jbay808]

Yes; it's caused several people to leave their empty houses in a permanent state of not-fit-for-inhabitance, which allows one to avoid paying the tax.

[imtringued]

Well it does sound like it worked but the problem is that they forgot to apply the tax on all land (even empty land), not just the vacant properties.

[voisin]

Does any government official have to inspect and confirm? Building inspector?

[kennywinker]

There was hints of things maybe cooling off, then covid hit and prices have been spiking since.

[ttul]

It’s utterly bonkers. The median single family home in Vancouver costs CAD $1.9M (USD $1.5M).

[refurb]

Even more bonkers is the average house price in Canada (all of it) is over $700k now.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/photos/canada-real-estate-pri...

It’s half that in the US.

[rishav_sharan]

I wonder if thats because most of the Canadian population is localized to their mega cities like Toronto, Vancuver etc while US has a much larger rural population.

[ttul]

Or could it perhaps relate to the Canadian government’s historical support of housing markets through the distortions of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which intervenes heavily in the mortgage wholesale market to provide liquidity whenever the economy stumbles…?

[digislave]

Vancouver is famous all over the world as an attractive city (for example I live in Berlin, Germany, and many people I know would like to visit Vancouver). I've never been there, but I have heard it is next to the sea AND next to the mountains, and it lies in a first world country with a solid economy and good health care. Maybe the prices just reflect demand?

[voisin]

All true, and all were true 20 years ago when prices were not this out of line with local incomes.

[xvilka]

And likely it will not be affected much by the climate change.

[rishav_sharan]

Hasn't British Columbia where Vancouver is at, had terrible weather this year? Looks like Vancouver is actually more vulnerable to the climate crisis compared to other major Canadian cities; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57654133

[ttul]

Yeah, that’s not playing out well. Vancouver and the surrounding region experienced 800 deaths relating to June’s unprecedented one-in-a-thousand-years heat wave.