5 ms·

Which is why vacant property tax makes sense for popular areas

by justinhj 7y ago

refurb 7y ago
So solve a problem created by regulations with more regulations?
- rileymat2 7y ago
  The presumption (right or wrong) is that the problem the first regulations solved is bigger than the problem that the regulations created. After seeing this new (smaller) problem, more regulations are applied creating a new even smaller problem. Making life better. This may or may not be true, but that is the idea.
- rconti 7y ago
  Rent control (regulation) creates more problem, I agree with that. But I don't think it's fair to say that expensive housing, full stop, is a product of regulation. There are desirably places to live that have housing that goes up at a good enough rate to be considered an investment. As long as there are people of sufficient means, some of them will add property to their portfolio of assets. A home that sits unused on prime real estate is, frankly, more of a drain on that community than $100,000 in cash sitting under a mattress going unused. It's not perfect, and it IS a regulation, but penalizing people for hoovering up housing stock and then not using it, can benefit society.
- justinhj 7y ago
  I'm not sure I'm in favour of rent control in the first place, but as a Vancouver renter I have seen vacancy tax really help with both house prices and rental availability. It also seems to be a fair tax, you are being taxed on a luxury that affects other people negatively.
lbacaj 7y ago
It’s not so easy, how do you prove this? What if someone’s on vacation or has mail being delivered there etc. or comes in once in a while or Airbnb’s it’s much harder to impliment I think than it sounds.
- fountainofage 7y ago
  Well, what you do is get rid of prop 13 and do yearly appraisals. Then you just tax the property on what it's worth, and if a landlord refuses to rent, then the tax is now a vacancy tax. The real problem is we're not taxing these properties at the true value they could provide to society, so a massive market inefficiency exists.
  - KibbutzDalia 7y ago
    You are pure evil.
    - fountainofage 7y ago
      My landlord's building is worth $5 million ($5,000k) and he pays $3k a year in property taxes. He can evict all tenants and wait for someone to pay him $10 million for the property. He can wait for generations and never pay more than $4k a year because of how prop 13 is structured. But you do you.
      - zepto 7y ago
        Sure but you also want to force anyone who has recently managed to buy a home and doesn’t have a huge extra income out of it and out of the area. Your landlord may be able to evict one building’s worth of people, but your goal is to evict many more than that. Your landlord is harmless by comparison.
        fountainofage 7y ago
        Who said eviction? I said to charge to the property tax as it's valued today. Put a lien on the property and collect at time of transfer. There's no reason to evict people based on property taxes. Texas handles this just fine.
        zepto 7y ago
averros 7y ago
Nothing a good arson won't fix.

Which is why vacant property tax makes sense for popular areas

refurb 7y ago

So solve a problem created by regulations with more regulations?

rileymat2 7y ago
The presumption (right or wrong) is that the problem the first regulations solved is bigger than the problem that the regulations created. After seeing this new (smaller) problem, more regulations are applied creating a new even smaller problem. Making life better. This may or may not be true, but that is the idea.
rconti 7y ago
Rent control (regulation) creates more problem, I agree with that. But I don't think it's fair to say that expensive housing, full stop, is a product of regulation. There are desirably places to live that have housing that goes up at a good enough rate to be considered an investment. As long as there are people of sufficient means, some of them will add property to their portfolio of assets. A home that sits unused on prime real estate is, frankly, more of a drain on that community than $100,000 in cash sitting under a mattress going unused. It's not perfect, and it IS a regulation, but penalizing people for hoovering up housing stock and then not using it, can benefit society.
justinhj 7y ago
I'm not sure I'm in favour of rent control in the first place, but as a Vancouver renter I have seen vacancy tax really help with both house prices and rental availability. It also seems to be a fair tax, you are being taxed on a luxury that affects other people negatively.

lbacaj 7y ago

It’s not so easy, how do you prove this? What if someone’s on vacation or has mail being delivered there etc. or comes in once in a while or Airbnb’s it’s much harder to impliment I think than it sounds.

fountainofage 7y ago
Well, what you do is get rid of prop 13 and do yearly appraisals. Then you just tax the property on what it's worth, and if a landlord refuses to rent, then the tax is now a vacancy tax. The real problem is we're not taxing these properties at the true value they could provide to society, so a massive market inefficiency exists.
- KibbutzDalia 7y ago
  You are pure evil.
  - fountainofage 7y ago
    My landlord's building is worth $5 million ($5,000k) and he pays $3k a year in property taxes. He can evict all tenants and wait for someone to pay him $10 million for the property. He can wait for generations and never pay more than $4k a year because of how prop 13 is structured. But you do you.
    - zepto 7y ago
      Sure but you also want to force anyone who has recently managed to buy a home and doesn’t have a huge extra income out of it and out of the area. Your landlord may be able to evict one building’s worth of people, but your goal is to evict many more than that. Your landlord is harmless by comparison.
      - fountainofage 7y ago
        Who said eviction? I said to charge to the property tax as it's valued today. Put a lien on the property and collect at time of transfer. There's no reason to evict people based on property taxes. Texas handles this just fine.
        zepto 7y ago

averros 7y ago

Nothing a good arson won't fix.