Skyrocketing property taxes put squeeze on longtime residents of Point Grey Road
Fiona Anderson
Sun
CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun Westside realitor Spice Lucks takes in the spectacular view of English Bay from a waterfront home on Point Grey Road
Higher assessed values may create new millionaires on paper but they can also cause hardship as taxes based on the new values become unaffordable. One Vancouver neighbourhood feels especially affected.
Point Grey Road is known as the “golden mile” of Vancouver. It is a scenic 12 blocks that run along the beaches of the west side of Vancouver. Many of these homes house long-term residents who moved in because they loved the neighbourhood. But with skyrocketing assessments some can no longer afford the taxes.
“People are being priced out of their houses,” said Dr. Nathan Batt, president of the local ratepayers’ association.
Assessed values jumped 70 per cent a few years ago, Batt said, and since then have increased 25 to 30 per cent a year. That’s fine for people buying into the neighbourhood now but many local residents have no intention of selling and all the increased values means is that they have to pay higher taxes.
“It is the people who have bought 10 years ago, 15 years ago and just enjoy living in that location who have had their family grow up in that area and who don’t want to move that are being affected,” Batt said, “which I think is unfair.”
The average tax payable is probably $2,500 to $3,000 per month, Batt said. And this amount is as high as $70,000 a year for Army & Navy owner Jacqui Cohen, who lives at 2815 Point Grey Rd., Batt said.
“The fact of the matter is that there are some people who are retired engineers who have fixed incomes and they can’t live there any more,” Batt said. “I think that’s really sad that somebody who has lived there for such a long time has got to move because the assessment went up so high and the taxes went up accordingly high.”
Batt thinks there should be a limit to the amount of taxes that can be charged. For example, in California he says that taxes are based on the purchase price of the house and not on assessed value. That way people know what they are getting into when they buy and that’s much more reasonable.
If you buy a house for $1 million, Batt said, you should be expected to pay taxes on that level or a reasonable amount of increase per year beyond that and not necessarily based on what a house sold for three or four blocks away because what that house sold for may not be indicative of what the houses are really worth. People with deep pockets and bidding wars are causing some houses to be sold at amounts that don’t necessarily reflect actual value, Batt said.
“I think that the tax structure needs to be revised in the whole city,” Batt said. “I don’t want to say that we’re the only ones that are being overtaxed.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
