The pivot

Can you make real estate cheaper by taxing it more?

If you’re a BC socialist, hell yeah. Let ‘em rip.

So a Canadian government has just done what none had ever dreamed of before – punishing companies for not selling their products at a loss.

The election just called in that province is interesting for many reasons. The Cons imploded, facing mass defections of elected MPPs and the evisceration of their combative (and flaky) leader. Despite that, polling shows they’re competitive with the NDP and its divisive czar, David Eby – who’s never found anything he can leave alone. Especially the housing market.

Eby thrust the province into this vote with two years left in his mandate, and in a naked attempt to capitalize on the fact Conservatives were eating their young. It’s not what people need or want when the country already has enough angst and uncertainty.

But it gets worse.

Eby’s signature proposal is to cream developers and builders by heavily taxing them on value of condo units they can’t sell because of a lousy market. Seriously. New, completed, finished, unoccupied homes people don’t wish to buy will be taxed at 2% of assessed value. So, yes, that’s a hit of almost a half-million dollars on a development with 30 unsold units averaging $800,000 each.

Eby’s back-of-the-envelope and rad plan comes after a report that up to 5,000 new units are available – but no buyers – across Metro Van. Together they have a market value of more than $4 billion. The allegation is that the builders/developers/owners are not reducing prices enough, choosing to hold firm until market conditions improve. It’s called capitalism.

After all, they built them. They financed them. They own them. They’re carrying them. They’re paying maintenance costs, property taxes, insurance premiums and security staff. Now a rogue government says they’ll be additionally, and heavily, taxed unless they sell at a reduced price, constituting a capital loss.

The consequences of forcing prices lower in such a blunt way – with no guarantee the units will get offers – are many. First is an immediate devaluation of all the other units in a building or a hood where people paid full price a few months or a couple of years ago. That’s how real estate works. It could mean an abrupt loss of equity for many people, likely forcing some of them to be upside-down on their mortgages.

Worse, spanking builders for a situation they did not create and cannot control (the economy, the market, the trade war, higher rates, Trump) will drain them of capital for the next development and make everybody question doing business in wacky BC.

It’s overreach. It adds costs to those people tasked with increasing housing stock (which all politicians want). It penalizes the private sector. It risks reducing housing starts in the future, leading to less inventory and higher prices. All for the sake of tapping into public hate for the real estate industry and keeping David Eby in his limo.

There’s more.

The guy says, if re-elected, he will seriously increase that silly ‘speculation and vacancy tax’ which applies to almost 60 municipalities across the province. People who own homes and don’t occupy them full-time, or choose not to rent them out, will be paying big, The tax doubles for Canadian citizens and jumps 67% for foreigners. It is, essentially, a tax on cottages, hobby farms, ranches, chalets and second family homes. Just what you’d expect in North Korea.

Moreover, everybody needs to fill out documentation every year, declaring the use of their own property. Failure to do so means the full tax is automatically applied (it will be $30,000 on the average Whistler condo), plus penalties.

“We will intervene,” says Eby. “We will stand up for British Columbians, just like we stand up to Trump, stand up to developers. We will stand up for the families, who are struggling with affordability.”

So, does taxing real estate more make it less expensive?

Only in the strange minds of Canada’s socialists. In practice, Vancouver has been hit with plunging sales and prices that have declined, on average, just 3% annually since 2022. The typical SFH peaked at $2.1 million in the late stages of the pandemic and now sells for $1.8 million. Meanwhile taxes have increased, inflation has settled at 3% and the American administration has made life more uncertain, costly and stressful.

Now, this.

Politically Eby was stung by criticism a BC-federal plan to bulk-buy unsold condo units and rent them out as affordable housing was a developer bail-out. So he’s pivoting to save his tail. Developers evil. Eby, “standing up for families.”

He deserves what’s coming.

About the picture: “Poor Rusty was playing with our other beagle, Mabel, in our backyard when he ran into the sharp  edge of an aluminum downspout,” writes Dan. “Surgery was successful but our poor boy isn’t too happy. I never would have considered this as a safety hazard for my dogs and I feel just dreadful! Plastic extenders are now covering each downspout. Check your play areas for hazards folks! Keep your puppies safe!”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘[email protected]’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/09/27/the-pivot-4/