Just watching the Edmonton news this morning. That city's Mayor is aggressively pushing his Province for a change in the rules that will allow his city to charge a 1% "property transfer tax" on the sale of all homes. The reason given was that the $50 million generated would allow them to reduce property tax burden on existing home owners.
I have a bit of trouble with the logic of paying an average of $4000 for the right to transfer property.... but in the end, I suppose as long as property taxes are reduced then it should all pretty much average out in the end. Those that stay in the city would be rewarded, somewhat at the expense of those that move.
Here's the article:
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=924fde28-40aa-4a5e-8050-5558b15efc27&k=78985
For someone that hasn't quite bought a home yet, do we have anything like this? Would something similar to this fly here?