Vancouver’s Empty Condos: Key Dates & Facts

🏙️ Vancouver’s Empty Condos: Key Dates & Facts 🏙️

Vancouver’s skyline is full of shiny towers, but behind the glass, thousands of condos sat empty while affordability and homelessness worsened. Here’s a quick timeline of how the Empty Condos Saga unfolded:

• March 2016 — A report reveals that 4.8% of all housing units in Vancouver were unoccupied in 2014, including 12.5% of condos/apartments — roughly 10,800 empty units 🏢❌.
• June 16, 2016 — Vancouver City Council receives recommendations to reduce empty housing, including creating a “Residential Vacant” property class for taxation 📝💡.
• July 2016 — Christy Clark’s government supports the city’s request for a vacancy tax. Bill 28, amending the Vancouver Charter to allow a vacancy tax, receives Royal Assent on July 28, 2016 and comes into force August 2, 2016 ⚖️🏠.
• November 16, 2016 — Vancouver City Council enacts the Empty Homes Tax (Vacancy Tax By-Law No. 11674): 1% of assessed value for residential properties unoccupied more than 180 days/year, starting January 1, 2017 💰🏢.

💡 Why it matters: While the tax was a step forward, the saga of empty condos reflects a bigger story — speculation, laundered money, political spin, and human costs. Thousands of units sat dark while people struggled to find housing 😔🏘️.

✨ Stay tuned for our 5-part series on the Empty Condos Saga — uncovering the spin, the scandals, and the human stories behind Vancouver’s housing crisis 🔎📖.