All taxes are regressive against the poor, but property taxes are a special kind of evil that specifically targets them and tries to prevent them from rising up in the world.
Oh hey you saved up for something nice? Here's a fine for that.
I don't think the poor and down-trodden are buying up homes in Vancouver. The issue is rich foreign investors buying up real estate either as vacation homes or investment properties. The only way these people contribute to the economy and community of Vancouver is through taxes. Raising the taxes should theoretically make this type of investment less desirable (and thus more affordable for poorer local residents)
The worst part of all is the endless money printing by central banks. Wages don’t keep up, and the vast majority of the new money goes straight to those who need it least. Meanwhile savings accounts pay nothing worth talking about. It’s a world for debtors that punishes savers, and actually saving up for meaningful assets becomes ever harder for our long suffering working class.
Housing in Vancouver is _incredibly_ expensive, and there's a huge amount of foreign ownership by rich people that leave the dwelling empty all the time, or maybe only live in it for a few weeks or months per year.
If someone is wealthy enough to own a property in Vancouver and not use it more than half the year, I don't have an ounce of sympathy for them being taxed for that. If they don't like it, sell the property, and rent an absolutely beautiful AIrbnb or house for the times that they are in the city.
It's mostly because of foreign investors (ie: Chinese multi-millionaires) using real-estate using empty houses as a way to store their money abroad, making the market even more unaffordable for everyone else by increasing price and creating a shortage.
Oh hey you saved up for something nice? Here's a fine for that.