We should tax foreign buyers just like Vancouver (Seattle: real estate, 2015)

[ItWasABigMistake]

Wealthy overseas buyers to face new real estate tax in Vancouver

Opinion?

[jjinla]

Love it! While it might soften home price appreciation (good as a safety net), I'm so tired of these foreign buyers snapping up houses that they either rent out or more often, leave vacant.

It's destroyed many a neighborhood around here. Even when they rent, they rarely keep up the properties. They care not one bit about any of the neighbors and only of the cash flow. I really wish that they'd move on from Seattle.

[Quezocotl]

One reason it makes sense is that they're doing it in Vancouver. Vancouver is pretty much implementing a price control, which may drive buyers down here, contributing to OUR problem. It may be a good idea for, if nothing else, curbing that influx.

[Natnasci]

The BC government is in election mode. That is the only reason they decided to look like they were doing something after years of ignoring or saying there was an issue. They rushed it through without thinking about the fall out.

It applies only to Vancouver area and not the rest of the province, so smaller communities are worried that the foreign buyers will just move there and drive up their prices.

The headline the OP linked to is misleading. It's not just wealthy overseas buyers, it's ANY foreign buyer. This poor guy is an example of that.

New real estate tax harming foreigners working in B.C., says American buyer - British Columbia - CBC News

[ctr88]

I think they should put a huge tax on any foreign national purchasing of single family homes and condos. If they want to buy here there should be a massive 20%+ tax on the purchase price at closing. It does no one any good and brings no value to local citizens when foreign national multi-millionaires just use local houses and condos to park their cash and get it out of their home country (I would probably extend tax 1-4 units). All it does is inflate the local housing market more for local families that want to buy the house to live as their primary residence and raise their families.

I have no problem with foreign nationals investing in apartments and other commercial property with no additional tax.

[Hemlock140]

I would support the tax on any foreign investment purchases, residential or commercial, but not for owner-occupied residential, which is very common here. The foreign people buying the $600k+ existing homes and new million dollar homes are living in them with their families, and are working in Seattle or on the eastside. In fact, many new developments are doing dual-masters to accommodate their extended families. The demand, and the ongoing local spending of these immigrants is good for the economy.

[jjinla]

I don't know what neighborhood you live in, but the people buying one million-dollar homes here leave them vacant or rent them out. They are doing it specifically under the EB-5 program. If the home is more than $1m, they needn't prove jobs or being in a high unemployment area. All of the homes in our area are above 1 million, so they literally have agents driving around caravans of people from China on a regular basis.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/edito...127-story.html

If you can afford to buy your way to permanent residency in the US, a tax isn't out of the question.

I'm not referring to families that came over here to work, and later settled. They are as welcome as anyone. I'm talking about people that are using US real estate to park their money and to buy their way into residency if they ever should decide to pursue it.

[homesinseattle]

Sounds xenophobic to me, and I'm a pretty open minded person.

[drshang]

A 15% transaction tax is generally really poor policy IMO. For one, it penalizes foreign resident workers who purchase property as a primary residence. It also does nothing to address the problem of current absentee ownership of property that is left vacant and does nothing to address the existing pricing problem. Plus, I think such law would not really be legal in the US.

A far better solution is to raise property taxes and give homestead exemptions for primary owners/residents. In general we should provide tax disincentives for people to own many properties. If ones tax rate to own a second house is significantly higher than for a primary resident, it will make sense for owners to dispense of additional properties and free up the property market for owner occupants. This discourages homes from being rented out as Airbnb and monthly rentals, and leaves that market specifically for larger buildings or multifamily buildings.