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A Near Miss - The Calgary Real Estate Transfer Fee

By
Real Estate Agent with Century 21 Bamber Realty

In an 8-to-7 split, Calgary city council voted down a motion to implement a real estate transfer fee. 8-to-7! Last I checked, Canada is in a recession and the Calgary real estate market balanced precariously on the proverbial knife edge. Calgary should be encouraging investment, growth and development and an 8-to-7 vote is not a vote of confidence for investors and homeowners. And in an effort to further assuage Calgarian’s fears, the council vowed to revisit the issue at some later date, likely fall 2009. Simply put, a transfer levy (fee or tax) would unnecessarily punish people having to relocate due to job loss or foreclosure. And, the transfer fee could only be detrimental to a struggling real estate market. In its proposed form, the fee would have consisted of a 1% surcharge on any real estate transaction. On the sale of a $300,000 home, the tax would be $3000.

In Toronto a similar tax has recently implemented and the Toronto real estate market has suffered as a result. Both real estate sales and average home prices suffered substantially in the face of their new, indiscriminate tax. For a more detailed breakdown of the effects of the Toronto real estate transfer tax, people can review the A.C. Howe Institute Study on the subject.

 

As always, visit my Calgary Real Estate website for further information regarding the Calgary Real Estate market.

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