Advocacy at work: 20,000 speculation tax exemptions related to construction

From February to October 2018, CHBA BC collaborated with the provincial government and the Minister of Finance, Carole James, to develop speculation and vacancy tax (SVT) exemptions for residential land under development in the approval, construction, or sale stages.

Without an exemption, our members would have been mandated to pay the SVT, as the properties would not have available units to rent or own while under construction or development, which were key requirements for the implementation of the tax.

CHBA BC quickly acted to share these original concerns to the Minister of Finance and her ministerial staff through written submissions and meetings in Victoria.

The advocacy efforts of CHBA BC helped the province recognize that taxes on land won’t solve our housing affordability crisis and that implementing these exemptions were beneficial to both home builders and home buyers.

Recently, the provincial government has made detailed information available, allowing us to see the magnitude of our advocacy efforts.

According to the report here:

• 15,106 exemptions were claimed for construction or renovation;

• 3,015 for vacant new inventory; and

• 1,876 for phased developments.

“We called for a speculation tax exemption for residential construction because we knew it would have a direct impact on housing affordability,” says CHBA BC CEO Neil Moody. “The government listened, which was a positive step to make new homes more affordable in British Columbia. This newly-released data shows that our efforts were beneficial for thousands of future home buyers, who would have otherwise been impacted by the tax.”

CHBA BC will continue to monitor the impacts of the tax upon home builders and home buyers.