[colechristensen]

>Also, the argument for taxing vacancies is city taxes are often set on the assumption of occupancy. A vacant unit doesn't contain a tax-paying worker. The vacancy tax adjusts for that.

Also important for commercial vacancies. The rent is too high, costs for commercial goods and services (and especially food and entertainment) is inflated by inflated rent so restaurants and consumer businesses can't stay open because they can't afford to pay the rent and lower prices to attract customers at the same time. And yet a huge proportion of the commercial space is just empty.

A vacancy tax makes up for that missing tax revenue from a running business and also just raises the quality of life for the people of your city by giving them opportunities for things to do and lowering the bar for entry into running a business.