Squamish, a district on the grow.
The Sea to Sky community, located about 65 kilometres north of downtown Vancouver, has seen booming building activity and its population has climbed steadily.
Coverage of Squamish on Globalnews.ca:
Numerous factors have attracted people to the town: its natural beauty is encompassed in features like the Stawamus Chief, and the waters of Howe Sound.
But relatively tame home prices have also brought people there — although that’s one facet of the community that appears to be changing.
This chart shows benchmark home prices in Squamish from February 2017 to February 2018, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV):
Squamish home prices are settling at higher and higher levels, with the benchmark price of a single-family detached home growing from $810,900 in February 2017 to $993,600 a year later — it had reached over $1 million before that.
The trend has given rise to questions over why B.C.’s speculation tax won’t apply there.
“One of the things the province hasn’t come to terms with is how connected Squamish is to the Lower Mainland,” Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman told Global News.
“We are influenced by their exhaling and their inhaling, we’re very much connected.”
The speculation tax is a measure introduced by the BC NDP government that is aimed at foreign and domestic speculators, satellite families that live in B.C., but don’t pay their share of income tax, and homeowners who own vacant property in urban centres.
It will tax vacant homes at 0.5 per cent of their property value this year, and at differing rates for foreign investors, Canadians and British Columbians next year.
B.C. residents who aren’t part of a satellite family will be eligible for a tax credit to offset the speculation tax payable.
READ MORE: Horgan defends speculation tax during Okanagan visit
The tax, which has yet to be legislated, will apply in Metro Vancouver, the Capital Regional District, the Okanagan, Nanaimo and parts of the Fraser Valley.
But not in Squamish, a place where people aren’t exactly calling for such a measure, but are nevertheless concerned about what could happen without it.
“We’re afraid of our housing prices going up even more,” Heintzman said.
“The median house in Squamish is almost $1 million.”
It’s not clear how much speculation is an issue in Squamish, but the city is gathering data.
“We’re not seeing a lot of foreign investment right now,” said Will Black, an agent with Macdonald Realty Squamish.
READ MORE: Canadian home sales drop 14.5% from December to January as new mortgage rules kick in
Nevertheless, concerns about home prices persist.
“I’m certainly worried about houses going up in prices,” said one man Global News spoke to in Squamish.
“The young people can’t afford it.”
BC NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert said the province’s finance ministry is “interested in these kinds of opinions,” that it “wants to hear from communities like Squanish and I know are considering the impacts of the tax, how it works and if it needs to be expanded.
- Video report by Geoff Hastings