Study commissioned by Ontario Real Estate Association claims municipal home sales levy has led to a $2.3B drop in economic activity, and repealing it would create thousands of jobs.
Toronto could see a $2-billion economic boost — and the creation of 12,000 new jobs over the next five years — if it repeals the municipal land transfer tax, says a new report.
“It’s bad for our economy and bad for homebuyers,” says Costa Poulopoulos, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association, which commissioned the report, released Tuesday.
It found that Toronto has seen an estimated decline of more than 38,000 home transactions since the tax was imposed in 2008, making home ownership more expensive and Toronto the only city in Canada where homebuyers are double-taxed: they have to pay both a municipal and a provincial land transfer tax on the purchase of a home.
That loss of sales has translated into a roughly $2.3-billion drop in economic activity in Toronto since 2008, and a $1.2-billion reduction in GDP, the report notes. It also says there would be nearly 15,000 more jobs in sectors from real estate to law to furniture and appliances stores without the Toronto-only land transfer tax.
The economic analysis was done by Altus Group Economic Consulting, relying heavily on two previous studies: a 2012 C.D. Howe Institute report that estimated the impact of the tax on housing transactions, as well as a 2013 study for the Canadian Real Estate Association that examined the economic impact of a typical house transaction in Ontario. >> full article here
By: Susan Pigg Business Reporter, Published on Tue Apr 29 2014
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