Additionally, since 2004, there’s a law that allows local authorities to take over empty homes and sell them, to make sure they are used for housing

Not sure what the effects have been of either

And secondly... Are the second vacation homes really the problem? I'd guess the problem begins around 3rd or 5th, not the second one, which is a fairly common and usually also a good thing to have - for both the owner and the society.

I'm not sure if you mean owning one primary home and two vacation homes, or one primary home and one vacation home when you mention a "second vacation home," but either way this strikes me as out of touch.

In 2024, US home ownership rate is 65.6%. (https://www.bankrate.com/homeownership/home-ownership-statis...)

In 2022, 4.6% of housing was comprised of second homes. (https://eyeonhousing.org/2024/09/the-nations-stock-of-second...)

4.6% of 65.6% is 3%, meaning _at most_ 3% of Americans own a second home (but this doesn't account for citizens that own 3 or more homes, so the actual percentage is even lower.)

I don't consider that to be common. I also wonder: why is it a good thing for society (or even most homeowners?)

We already have speculation tax in Canada.

They tried this in China. People would just get divorced so each partner had their own home. It turns out you can easily find someone in your family to "buy" a house as well.

Its the same thing as taxes. No one is stopping you from making up fake receipts. But you don't do that because its fraud.

One thing missing - renters cannot homestead their apartment and so the funds that own the apartment have to charge more rent to cover taxes on those apartments.