Toronto Wants To Create A New Homeowner Tax To Help Stop Skyrocketing Real Estate Prices
Home prices rose 22% last year.
If you think owning a home in Toronto is expensive, a new tax may be the solution.
Toronto City Council agreed on Wednesday that they would be asking the Ontario government to introduce a home speculation and home flipping tax in an attempt to curb the real estate market.
The idea, which was first requested by Councillor Mike Colle back in December, would reportedly "stop home speculators from unfairly driving up the cost of housing in Toronto to unprecedented levels."
While there are no details on what the tax would look like just yet, the original motion referred back to a similar solution that was taken back in the 1970s.
"When Toronto was facing a similar problem in the early 1970s, Ontario Premier Bill Davis implemented a 50 percent Land Speculation Tax on people buying and selling homes that were not their principal residence. This tax is credited with slowing the extreme increase in property values in Toronto in the 1970s.
"Urgent action is needed to help stop the extreme increase in home prices in Toronto, driven by home flippers and land speculators who treat housing like a Bitcoin-type commodity."
The motion also states, according to Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data, that home prices in the city rose 22% last year, with the "average selling price for a resale house or condo" sitting at $1.16 million.
Don't get your hopes up for the new tax just yet though, as the request is just the first step in a long governmental process.