Dear Editor,
I always have a bit of chuckle when I read letters like “single-family owner squeezed.”
If you have owned a single-family home for more than three years — congratulations.
You are rich, and the majority of the population (including myself) would love to be in your situation.
Foreign investment is “costing locals dearly” but only the locals who are trying to buy a home or get in the market.
If you already own a home, you are watching it go up, on average, $35,000 a month just by living in it.
Foreign buyers haven’t hurt you. In fact, they have done you a huge favour and added hundreds of thousands to your net worth.
The problem most people are complaining about are property taxes and lack of cash flow.
Nobody likes to pay property tax and our local government should be fiscally responsible (good luck with that).
Until that happens (never) you might have the option of NOT paying your property tax via the province’s property tax deferral program.
Most of the people who are complaining have a similar story — “on a fixed pension with no extra money.”
If that sounds like you (over 55) then look into the program. It is the best deal in town as you don’t have to pay your property taxes and the interest they charge is ridiculously low (less than one per cent a year).
It may sound like I’m picking on Melanie Clay-Smith (who wrote that she was being squeezed) but I’m not.
In fact, I’m doing her a favour by bringing the property tax deferral program to her attention.
If she is paying $5,500 in property tax that means her house is likely worth over $3 million and counting.
Melanie, you shouldn’t feel squeezed as you are rich (welcome to the one per cent).
Your house was likely paid off decades ago, so take some equity out if you really need it.
As for the property taxes, don’t pay them and save yourself $5,500/year in cash flow.
The tax deferral program is set up for people like you, so take advantage of it.
First-time homebuyers and families with young children who struggle to get into the market and have to compete with foreign buyers — these are the people who are being “squeezed.”
I’m sure they would love to have a clear title house worth millions and not have to pay property taxes. These are the types of “problems” I can really get behind.
Steve Mullin
Richmond
