It appears that based on recent figures, Toronto's vacant home tax has been a huge success for the city, bringing in just as much as expected during its first year while other taxes have failed to do so in our tanking real estate market.

And, to continue cracking down on investors who fail to use their properties as much-needed housing amid the current real estate crisis, the executive committee is recommending the tax actually be increased next year.

No business/investors should be allowed to buy single dwelling housing. Homes for people not for profits!

— Carol Brooks (@ttctaker) February 8, 2023

A new report shows that 2,336 units were confirmed to be vacant at the time the portal to declare a home as such was closed back in February, with those owners now paying the city one per cent of their property's assessed value each year that it doesn't serve as housing supply for themselves or renters.

In addition to this, owners of a whopping 44,902 units failed to declare their vacancy status by the generous deadline, meaning those properties were considered to be empty at the time of billing, and their owners, charged the same amount (which in the future will include a penalty fee, too).

Even after appeals cut this number by more than half, the city has managed to gross a substantial $54 million from the program, which is "consistent with the estimated and budgeted revenues for 2023," the update from October 3 states.

Planned administrative improvements based on learnings from the first year of the tax's implementation will also hopefully cut costs and increase the efficiency of the process moving forward, saving the city more money.

Good. Maybe it’ll push prices down and open up home ownership for more people.

— Retirement is fire. (@cmarcoux) February 17, 2021

But, staff also expect that more investors will sell off their assets or convert them to long-term rentals as time goes on, which means less tax revenue, but achieves the program's end goal of dissuading people from leaving extremely in-demand homes sitting empty as their value increases.