B.C. residents split on effectiveness of current housing policies, poll finds
British Columbians are split on whether they believe the provincial government’s policies will ultimately make it cheaper to buy a home, according to a new survey.
Forty-two per cent of the Research Co. poll respondents said they think the government’s actions will effectively make housing more affordable. That is down 15 points from a similar Research Co. survey conducted in June 2020.
Meanwhile, 43 per cent said they believe the provincial government’s housing actions will be ineffective, up 12 points from last year, and 16 per cent said they are undecided.
The president of Vancouver-based Research Co., Mario Canseco, said that number jumps out to him, especially considering the majority of respondents were in favour of the government’s speculation tax.
“We have a very low number of people who believe that this is actually going to lead to housing affordability,” Canseco told CTV News Vancouver in an interview Wednesday.
“We used to have this number closer to 60 per cent, and now there’s fewer than half who say we do believe that the taxes are going to help people,” he said.
Canseco added the taxes have been popular over the past few years, and that people continue to believe it is the correct course of action, but fewer residents have said current policies are the solution to the housing crisis.
“They have been collecting these taxes for a while, they continue to be popular, and we don’t really see a lot of people who have been able to enter the real estate market,” said Canseco, specifically pointing to people between the ages of 35 and 54 who may be trying to start families.
“That is the group that is essentially losing faith in this,” he added.
The poll found support for the speculation tax was highest with B.C. residents who voted for the NDP in last year’s provincial election at 77 per cent, and lowest for B.C. Liberal Party voters, at 67 per cent. B.C. Green Party voters came were in the middle of the two parties, at 73 per cent.
According to the survey, 75 per cent of residents are on board with the B.C. government’s decision to boost the current foreign buyer’s tax from 15 to 20 percent, and to expand the tax to regions outside of Metro Vancouver.
The poll also asked respondents if they would support similar legislation to that of New Zealand, which banned most foreign real estate buyers to the country. More than seven-in-10 British Columbians said they would.
That figure rose to 75 per cent in women, and 90 per cent in northern B.C. residents.
The poll also found that more than two-thirds of the province’s residents agree with a tax of 0.2 per cent on the value of homes between $3 million and $4 million, and a rate of 0.4 per cent on the portion of a home’s value surpassing $4 million.
Similarly, 67 per cent agree with the decision to boost the property transfer tax up to 5 per cent for homes valued at more than $3 million.
“Even on a situation like this which is going to be detrimental for those in the highest income bracket, you continue to see a high level of support for the taxes,” Canseco said.
He added a big part of problem continues to be the availability of homes.
“We haven’t had a connection between the taxes that are generated, and the existence of actual properties that want to get into the market can get into,” Canseco concluded.
Results of the poll come from an online study done June 1 and June 2 of this year, among 800 B.C. adults. Research Co. confirmed the data was weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in B.C.
The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.