Vancouver does this, and it reveals that vacant homes are not the problem. There's a small additional revenue stream, and some college students get to rent our mansions for cheap, but it's simply not enough homes to have much of an impact.
The vacancy/spec tax spiked the amount of rentals hitting the market the year it came into effect, adding 8000-11000 that year depending on if you factor in new builds.
You're only gonna get that big impact one time, but it goes to show that the tax was worth doing.
Doesn't solve the problem by itself, but the tax will help.
The amount of units that suddenly appeared showed that there was a small percent of units "leaking" from every new build that never hit the market.
