B.C. premier highlights initiatives to combat speculation, boost housing supply

With just under eight months to go until B.C.'s election, the province's premier touted the NDP government's ongoing initiatives to combat speculation and increase housing availability at a news conference Monday.

With just under eight months to go until B.C.'s election, the province's premier touted the NDP government's ongoing initiatives to combat speculation and increase housing availability at a news conference Monday.

Premier David Eby highlighted successes of the province's speculation and vacancy tax, saying it's opened up 20,000 homes for renters. The province has previously said the tax has collected more than $300 million since 2018.

"It used to be the case that if you worked hard, if you followed the rules and you put in your time, you'd be able to afford a good place to live," Eby said at Monday's news conference. "Well that contract was broken with people by governments that neglected to make sure that we were building and delivering housing that the middle class could actually afford."

Eby also discussed the incoming flipping tax, which was announced in the 2024 budget last week. If passed, beginning Jan. 1, 2025, any profits made from the sale of a residential home within two years of buying it will be subject to the tax, with some exceptions.

"We want the revenue from this to be as low as possible because we don't want people to be flipping homes," Eby said. "So if you own a home right now that you're planning on flipping, this is your final warning. This tax is coming."

But some critics say they don't believe the tax will lower housing prices.

”I think the flipping tax is not important at all for long-run affordability, but it may be important to provide political cover because there are some people – maybe lots of people – who don’t want to see their neighbourhood densify and believe that British Columbia is expensive not because of an absence of homes for people looking, but rather because of speculation or various nefarious investment forces,” Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, told CTV News Vancouver.