Toronto City Council is debating a motion moved by Mayor Olivia Chow to increase the vacant home tax from one per cent to three per cent as the city tries to tackle the housing crisis.
“The housing costs are so incredibly high, which is why housing is the first item in front of City Council today,” Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters ahead of the council meeting Wednesday. “We’re asking speculators that are leaving units, apartment units empty in the middle of a housing crisis to pay a bit more so we could raise millions and millions of dollars.
The MURA program is designed to preserve the existing supply of affordable rental housing in the city by having the city purchase market rental buildings in danger of being converted to condos. “The assumption is that this additional $50 million in revenue will decrease by approximately 20 per cent annually in subsequent years as a result of the Program’s target outcomes in improving housing supply and reducing the number of deemed vacant units,” the report says. “It is also expected that the incremental revenues as a result of a higher VHT rate starting with the 2024 taxation year will lessen over time as the objective of reducing the number of vacant residential units is achieved.
Executive committee considered expanding the program to include multiunit residential buildings at a meeting on August 24. They contemplated including properties with two to six units in the program. However staff determined that it would be difficult for the city to make that move without expending excessive time and resources to assess the value of each individual unit. Staff are therefore not recommending the move at this time.
He said he also wants to see an exemption for people who leave homes vacant due to health circumstances, relating a story about one woman in his ward who was hit with the tax after selling a condo she moved out of while she was having cancer treatments. Council passed a motion moved by Holyday to study the feasibility of exemptions for medical reasons.
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