Property taxes are very low in Canada and it has been noted by many that there could be a relationship here between this fact and Canada's remarkably high house

Property taxes are very low in Canada and it has been noted by many that there could be a relationship here between this fact and Canada's remarkably high house prices. Lower carrying costs mean more money is available to flow into the carrying costs of outrageously large loans to the bank. Hemmingway has done good work in the last few years in exploring this and suggesting policy that could make things work a bit better. His fifth suggestion of a Land Value Tax is a trendy one that has pulled in support from both the right and the left. I think a LVT would be a more fair way to tax land than a property tax, and would have an additional upside of incentivizing more efficient use of land (ie. apartments). The downside is that a simplistic implementation would be an enormous giveaway to very wealthy mansion owners, as they'd see a big chunk of their property tax bill vanish (the luxurious mansion part) to be paid for by lower income land owners elsewhere. I think for this reason a LVT implementation would be best balanced out with some of the other progressive property tax ideas Hemmingway suggests here, so that the ultra wealthy aren't getting a free ride here.