This is what the group of local economists who proposed the empty house tax (the BCHAF) have to say about the root cause of Vancouver's real estate affordability problem:
Quote:
"The fundamental drivers of local housing prices are high demand and limited supply. The only way to have a decisive impact on affordability would be to weaken the building restrictions that sharply restrict new housing supply in most of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Major improvements in affordability are only possible by allowing supply to respond to changing demand. This proposal [the empty house tax] is a modest step to help out, but won’t address the underlying problem of supply restraints."
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Signatories:
Thomas Davidoff, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Tsur Somerville, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Anthony Boardman, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Sanghoon Lee, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Elena Siminitzi, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Jack Favilukis, Sauder School of Business, UBC
David Silver, Sauder School of Business, UBC
David Green, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Hiro Kasahara, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Angela Tardif, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Nancy Gallini, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Sumeet Gulati, Food and Resource Economics, UBC
Paul Schrimpf, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Francesco Trebbi, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Yaniv Yedid-Levi, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Alvaro Parra, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Jim Brander, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Keith Head, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Werner Antweiler, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Masao Nakamura, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Jim Vercammen, Food and Resource Economics, UBC
Vanessa Alviarez, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Florian Hoffmann, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Matilde Bombardini, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Joshua Gottlieb, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Henry Siu, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Paul Beaudry, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Mukesh Eswaran, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Yoram Halevy, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Siwan Anderson, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Joe Henrich, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Ashok Kotwal, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Mauricio Drelichman, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Giovanni Gallipoli, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Kevin Milligan, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Vitor Farinha Luz, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Thorsten Rogall, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Jesse Perla, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Vadim Marmer, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Margaret Slade, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Chuck Blackorby, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Sam Hwang, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Thomas Lemieux, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Jamie Mccasland, Vancouver School of Economics, UBC
Tom Ross, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Jose Pineda, Sauder School of Business, UBC
Paul Kershaw, School of Population & Public Health, UBC
Source:
http://www.housingaffordability.org/faqs.html