Vancouver housing

Categories: Taxation

Essay, Pages 3 (600 words)

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Situated at the southwestern-most pocket of Canada, Vancouver is one of the main places in Canada that doesn't encounter cold and blanketed winters. Vancouver is a nature sweetheart's heaven, encompassed by the Pacific toward the west, and mountains and huge commonplace parks toward the north and east. Close to the north of the U.S. outskirt, and with every day direct flights to Asia, it's open as well. But all these facilities are not worth if the prices of the house or rentals are rising rapidly and therefore to tackle this problem, the government should take some measures to solve this like putting some restrictions on foreign investors, initiating schemes for affordable housing like cooperative housing.

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The biggest and most important problem of Vancouver housing is its high prices. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the average price of a detached home is $1.6 million, and the average price of an apartment $665,400 (Caulfield,2018). A couple named Iain Reeve and his spouse moved into rental home in Vancouver but they had to move to Ottawa and buy two house, one for them and another for his parents because they were not able to afford house in Vancouver to start their family due to high soaring prices.

(Affordable Housing Problem, 2019).

To solve this housing problem, the government should confine foreign buyers and end tax avoidance because these foreign investors with a lot of wealth are buying properties. A study done in one affluent downtown neighborhood found a fourth of bought condos to be uninhabited which in turn leads to low vacancy rate and thus high prices of the houses (Dorfmann, 2015).

Also, the government should remove loopholes which help these investors to avoid property tax on their investments and punish those who help these investors in avoiding taxes. The governments should restrict foreign ownership of land, as Martyn Brown argued in the Georgia Straight, or limit it to those who live and pay taxes in Canada.(dauncey, 2016).

The population in Vancouver is rising. The number of inhabitants in Metro Vancouver, presently around 2.5 million and its expected to grow 50 percent in the following 20 years (Lindeman, 2019). So, the demand for the housing is growing at a fast pace but the supply is not enough to meet this demand which is turn lead to high prices. So, with tax money in hand, the government should aim at providing affordable housing. By affordable housing means that the government needs to make an investment in public affordable housing and should aid housing cooperatives by giving them loans at lower rate of interest or free interest loans and other initiatives. for example, there is no housing emergency in Zurich because the city reacted to its housing problem by offering premium free advances to purchase land for co-operative housing.

To conclude, the only problem with the Vancouver housing is its affordability. solving this emergency need some strong actions like putting some restrictions on the foreign investors, reduce tax evasion by these investors and by taking affordable housing initiatives by aiding cooperative housing and other initiatives. One thing is sure: without profound, purposeful arrangements, this emergency will just deteriorate.

References

Affordable Housing Problem Is Causing Vancouver's Brain Drain: Minister Carole James (2019, January 13), Huffpost. Retrieved from J. (2015).
New Wealth Seeks a "Home": The Global Rise of the Hedge City. Harvard International Review, 36(3), 4-6. Retrieved from G. (2016, December 16).
Eight Solutions to Canada's Housing Crisis. Thetyee. Retrieved from URL P. (2018, April 9).
Is there a housing crisis solution in Vancouver and other B.C. municipalities Journal of Commerce. Retrieved from T. (2019, May 7).
New Taxes and Higher Density Aren't Fixing Vancouver's Housing Problem. Citylab.