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Vancouver proposes tighter Airbnb restrictions

Vancouver mayor wants to ban Airbnb rentals for those who aren’t living in the homes they are listing The Canadian Press Vancouver’s mayor wants to ban Airbnb rentals for those who aren’t living in the homes they are listing, while requiring everyone else to hol...
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Proposed Empty Homes Tax approved to go to public consultation

City staff to seek direction on exemptions and tax rate from Vancouver residents  Today City Council took next steps on a proposed new Empty Homes Tax to help relieve pressure on the rental housing market. City staff will now move forward with public consultation to...
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No condo too small after Victoria changes rules

Bill Cleverley / Times Colonist As Victoria moves to allow more micro apartment units, public spaces have to become living spaces, and peoples’ attitudes toward vagrancy have to change, say some city councillors. “I basically think we have to turn the page on th...
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Seattle considers limits — or taxes — on Airbnb rentals

by David Kroman What does Airbnb have to lose with Seattle’s new proposed regulations on rentals? By one estimate, a lot. Last Thursday, the data-centric news website FiveThirtyEight (a media outlet spun off from the New York Times) released an analysis of Airbn...
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Vancouver's Flimsy Foreign Tax

The 15 percent charged to offshore buyers won’t slow the real estate market—there are too many loopholes to make it effective BY KERRY GOLD When bc premier Christy Clark announced that foreigners would be charged a 15 percent tax on real estate purchases, Vancou...
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Burnaby community group appeals to province over zoning amendment

FRANCES BULA | The Globe and Mail   As Burnaby faces increasing protests over planning decisions that have allowed cheap apartments to be demolished for condos and permitted so-called “supersize density” at four key sites, a community group is appealing to the p...