Tax blow for HK owners of Canadian homes
The many Hong Kong residents who own houses, condominiums or apartment buildings in Vancouver or elsewhere in British Columbia are going to find their tax bills substantially higher this year.
The British Columbia Assessment Authority, which estimates the value of all property in the Canadian province, has served notice that total assessments this year will on average be 17 per cent higher than last year.
Unless individual municipalities move to lower the tax rate, the higher assessment will mean higher tax revenues across the province.
The tax burden will fall especially heavily on Hong Kong residents and other absentee owners because they will not be eligible for a provincial 'homeowner's grant' designed to cushion the burden of property taxes.
The grant is not paid to absentee owners, so Hong Kong owners will get no shelter from a 20 per cent to 35 per cent increase in their property taxes.
David Baxter, executive director of Vancouver's Urban Futures Institute, said the good news about the increased assessment was that homeowners were seeing a dramatic increase in the value of their houses.
'The rise in assessment is really great news if you don't have to pay taxes,' he said.
But if you do pay taxes, they will be sharply higher.
Mr Baxter is particularly sensitive to the position of Hong Kong owners because he bought his house from a Hong Kong resident and half the space in his office building is owned by Hongkongers.
The increases in assessed values in Vancouver range from 15 per cent to 35 per cent, with similar increases in Victoria.
Mr Baxter, whose institute is an economic forecasting agency, sees the increased tax burden as just one of several problems Hong Kong residents face owning property in British Columbia.
'At the same time there has been a lot of residential property brought on the market in Vancouver in terms of condominium high-rise. So you are probably also seeing your vacancy rate go up. If I was somebody sitting in Hong Kong looking at this, I'd be saying maybe we have an issue or two here.'
