Canadians support $1 million surcharge on homes, poll shows

A new survey shows that a majority of Canadian residents support modest prices for housing inequity, with many willing to pay $1 million for 10% of the country’s housing market. It seeks to impose an additional tax on homes worth exceeding.

As reported by BNN Bloomberg, such tax measures could generate about $5 billion in annual revenue.

Data collected by Canadian nonprofit Generation Squeeze shows that homeowners want to fight affordability.

Generation Squeeze said on its website, “We should celebrate those who are willing to donate a portion of their housing wealth and put the brakes on unreachable levels of oppression.

“Our polls suggest many Canadians are open to changing their dysfunctional housing system, which has plagued young, aspiring homeowners … for decades. We are going up against older, established homeowners who have entered the market before and have seen rising prices create wealth.”

The poll was conducted among 1,010 Canadian adults. Of those respondents who live in million-dollar homes, 57% of them said they favored “understating housing inequalities.”

Average Canadian home prices fell 1.2% from the previous month to $756,200 in October, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Many of the poll respondents argued that tax support would increase if the increase in income was directed towards more affordable housing units.

“What our poll shows is that many Canadians are more willing than they expect politicians to check house price increases,” said Generation Squeeze.

methodology:

This data was collected by Research Co. for Generation Squeeze. The poll was conducted among 1,010 Canadian adults, and the margin of error for the results was +/- 3.1% age points, 19 out of 20.