Is there a reason they didn't tax non-use? The "foreigner exclusion" sounds like fighting a symptom.

Simply require proof of residency in the property (or an active lease agreement / market listing) to qualify for a tax break. Otherwise, if you're parking-and-holding-without-using, you get slapped with a higher tax rate.

Something like this was suggested by economists at the local university.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-prof...

The Mayor of Vancouver is also interested in taxing non-occupancy and in the same special session of the legislative assembly that passed the 15% foreign buyer tax the Province granted the City of Vancouver (but not others) the powers to tax non-occupancy. It can be pretty involved to find out occupancy and the City has limited means so it'll be interesting to see if that goes anywhere.

>Is there a reason they didn't tax non-use? The "foreigner exclusion" sounds like fighting a symptom.

The cynical answer to this by the way is that there's a Provincial election in early 2017, so in the near term appearing to address the problem is more important than addressing the problem in an effective way.

Cambridge MA, has a resident tax abatement program. It hasn't seemed to help much as we are starting to see foreign all cash sales...

Starting? It's been rampant for well over a year. We opted out of the whole mess and moved to Salem. $200/sqft for a beautiful historic mansion in an eminently walkable small city that's a quick train ride from North Station. Don't fight it. Just bail.

> Is there a reason they didn't tax non-use?

That would be much more difficult to enforce. You'd have to hire people to walk around knocking on doors or have neighbours snitching on each other. No thanks.

Interesting so was this a high profile issue then in Canada and B.C in general. For those unaware, in some places these foreign investors(speculators, non-primary residences.) are getting tax breaks. So not only on their making out on the appreciation on the property but they are receiving tax breaks on top of that:

http://www.businessinsider.com/foreign-billionaire-tax-break...