Canada’s biggest city has tripled the tax it charges owners of vacant residential property as Toronto homeowners must now pay 3% of the home evaluation for a unit kept empty for over six months.

Meanwhile, 13 small towns in British Columbia have joined 46 others in the province in charging a vacant home tax. They join an increasing number of Canadian cities that include Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver in charging owners of uninhabited residential properties with fees in a bid to raise revenue and incentivize owners to occupy or lease out their vacant units to help address the housing shortage.

The tax increase in Toronto means that the owner of a vacant property in the city of Toronto evaluated at $500,000 will be required to pay $15,000 for the year if it is deemed vacant, rather than the previous $5,000, which was based on the 1% tax during the first year in place.

Last year at this time, Toronto and Ottawa introduced the tax for the first time, following the lead of Vancouver, which has charged the tax since 2017.

Toronto’s vacant home tax raised $54 million in 2023, according to a report issued by the municipality last fall. Only about 2,300 homeowners initially filled out the report, with 45,000 failing to report after the tax was first implemented.

That's according to an update provided by the city, which also noted that about 28,000 homeowners filed notice of complaints asking to review their status. The city announced the tax increase following the election of Mayor Olivia Chow in June.

Toronto is home to about 2.8 million residents, just under half of the total population of the Greater Toronto Area population, according to the most recent federal census of 2021, and has 1,253,238 total private dwellings.

The city of Vancouver had plans to raise its empty homes tax to 5% but opted to maintain it at 3% in a decision taken last May.

The city of Vancouver is home to 662,000 residents and contains 328,000 private dwellings, according to census data. The city has not provided numbers for 2023 on its website.

Meanwhile, 13 towns in British Columbia have launched the tax for the first time. They are: Vernon, Coldstream, Penticton, Summerland, Lake Country, Peachland, Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Salmon Arm, Kamloops and North Cowichan.

The province of British Columbia now administers the tax in 59 municipalities and has collected over $313 million since 2018 from the tax, according to its website.

A representative of the city of Ottawa told CoStar News in an email that it plans to issue a report on its first year with the tax in April. There have been no changes announced to the city’s current tax, though last summer several city councillors urged the abolition of the 1% tax.

The city of Ottawa is home to 1,017,449 residents and contains 427,113 private dwellings, according to 2021 census data.