In Oak Bay, realtors opposed to new housing taxes to hold town hall on Thursday

A new anti-speculation tax and anti-school tax town hall is planned for another B.C. community.

The event, scheduled for Thursday night, is being hosted by realtors in the affluent Victoria-area community of Oak Bay.

Co-organizer Scott Piercy said the taxes have prompted people who’ve owned secondary homes in the area to sell, after having them for as long as a decade.

“Even though it’s a proposed tax and hasn’t passed, they’re not willing to wait on the uncertainty of what’s going to happen. So they’re just packing it up and leaving,” he said.

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Piercy said he’s already sold the homes of half a dozen out-of-towners.

“I’ve had clients from Alberta say to me, ‘I’ll go to the U.S. and buy a secondary home in Arizona, because they don’t care where I am from,'” he said.

Piercy said in his experience, about half of the homes being sold by out-of-towners are being purchased by other non-residents with more money to spend.

The speculation tax will affect secondary homes that don’t have permanent tenants, and that are worth more than $400,000.

It applies to Metro Vancouver, Victoria’s Capital Regional District (excluding the Gulf Islands and Juan de Fuca), Kelowna and West Kelowna, Nanaimo-Lantzville, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission.

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People who live outside of Canada will pay the tax at a rate of two per cent, while Canadians who live outside of B.C. will pay at a rate of one per cent. Tax credits are available to people in these categories who report income in B.C.

The province said 99 per cent of British Columbians won’t pay the tax, and it has exempted vacation homes.

Oak Bay isn’t the only community raising concerns about the tax. Both West Kelowna and Nanaimo have said they want to be excluded from the new levy, arguing that it will drive away development money.

The controversial school tax has also seen significant pushback from areas with high-value homes, such as Vancouver’s Point Grey neighbourhood and the District of West Vancouver.

The school tax applies an additional 0.2 per cent levy on the value of a home between $3 million and $4 million, and a 0.4 per cent levy on the value of a home above $4 million.