Halifax’s tax increase will make housing more expensive and worsen housing crisis
Halifax Regional Municipality’s proposed 9.7% tax increase will add costs to delivering housing and make the city’s housing crisis worse.
“Is it any wonder so many people are homeless when the best idea that Halifax Regional Municipality can come up with is another excessive property tax hike?” said Kevin Russell, Executive Director of Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia. “Higher property taxes and higher fees mean building and maintaining housing becomes more expensive. Higher property taxes and fees drive up rents and/or cause property owners to sell. Halifax Regional Municipality needs to get its own house in order and better manage their budgets – like every municipal taxpayer is expected to – instead of raising taxes and making housing more expensive.”
With property taxes accounting for one-third of building operating costs, and no provincial cap on assessment on apartment buildings, rental property owners and their tenants will be affected disproportionately by Halifax’s municipal tax increase. IPOANS renewed its call on the Nova Scotia government to extend the Capped Assessment Program to include rental housing providers.
“For years, rental housing providers have faced the double whammy of assessment increases and municipal tax rate increases. We continue to urge Premier Tim Houston to extend the Capped Assessment Program to all forms of rental housing to offset the full impact of municipal tax hikes,” added Russell. “The provincial rent cap has been a flop in keeping rental housing affordable. We need the provincial government to step up with real solutions to keep housing affordable like extending the Capped Assessment Program.”
Questions?
Kevin Russell | Executive Director
O: 902.425.3572 | C: 902.789.0946 | E: kevin@rhpns.ca
211 Horseshoe Lake Drive, Suite 112, Halifax, NS, B3S 0B9
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