Vancouver looks to Europe for cost of living solutions

VANCOUVER — Imagine living in a former church, school building or fire station for $50 a week. Consider a 25 per cent tax on people who leave their homes vacant.

Or the city taking over the hard work of finding a tenant for owners wary of renting.

These are just a few of the inventive solutions that Europe has tried to fill empty dwellings.

And while there is disagreement in Vancouver about the extent of the problem, “dark houses” continue to be a hot topic in a city with one of the least affordable housing markets on Earth. An oft-cited study by adjunct UBC planning professor Andrew Yan found up to one in four units vacant – for at least part of the year – in some Vancouver neighbourhoods. But think tank Urban Futures found just 5.4 per cent of units unoccupied overall, in line with other big cities.

The City of Vancouver has hired a consultant to analyze census and electricity consumption data. Here’s a look at how Europe has tackled vacant homes: • France introduced its vacancy tax in 1998 in cities with over 200,000 residents. The tax applied to units that haven’t been inhabited for more than 30 consecutive days over the past two years – as long as they’re not too run down to be lived in or already on the market.

The tax was 10 per cent of the property’s rental value for the first year of vacancy, rising to 12.5 per cent the next year and 15 per cent the following year.

About 180,000 households paid the tax in 1999, dropping to 96,837 in 2007. • Directly translated to “rent solidarity,” Paris’s Louez solidaire enables the city to assume the risks of renting on behalf of private owners.

The owner entrusts an empty unit to a partner agency contracted by the Paris government for three to six years. The partner selects a tenant, and guarantees the owner that the rent will be paid and any damage will be covered. In exchange, the tenant pays about 70 to 80 per cent of the market rent.