Ontario plans to levy tax on vacant properties

​​JohnTory, #CityofToronto, #Toronto Real Estate Board, #ScarboroughTownCentre, #DetachedHouse
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Toronto, April 3 (Canadian-Media): Toronto Mayor John Tory had met with experts in the real estate, banking, business and housing sectors recently and said that in the event of the spike in Toronto housing prices, taxes on the vacant houses should be considered as an option, media reports said.

Tory said the increase in housing prices had created a void in the availability of houses for sale, CBCNews reports said.

According to Toronto Real Estate Board reports there has been an increase of 29.8 percent in the average price of detached homes from February 2016 to February 2017.

The board added that average detached home in the city cosr $1,573,622.

Jagdish, who moved to a house near Scarborough Town Centre in Toronto 15 years back, said that a detached house just in front of his house had been lying vacant ever since he moved there.

He said, “I am greatly concerned about this considering the consequent increase in house prices and difficulty the buyers are facing.”

Mayor tory, cited the census data and said approximately 65,000 houses in the City of Toronto (Municipal Government body of Toronto) were lying vacant and were not on the market, CBCNews reports said

Tory said Vancouver’s decision to tax 1 percent on the actual price of the vacant house should be followed by city of Toronto, CBCNews reports said.

Tory is waiting, said CBCNews reports, for the provincial government’s approval on this matter.
He added that Ontario’s Finance Minister Charles Sousa was in agreement with Tory’s proposal that owners of empty houses should pay their fair share.
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(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
 
Image of Toronto Mayor John Tory (Wikipedia)

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