Premier Kathleen Wynne is taking wide-ranging action to protect tenants from massive rent increases and homebuyers from being gouged. As first disclosed by the Star, Wynne is imposing a 15 per cent foreign buyers’ levy — the non-resident speculation tax — to slow down southern Ontario’s skyrocketing real estate market that the Bank of Canada has warned is unsustainable. The tax “would apply ‎to transfers of land that contain at least one and not more than six single family residences” and affect buyers who are not citizens or permanent residents as well as foreign corporations. It will hit all residential transactions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — including the Greater Toronto Area, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie, Orillia, and Peterborough. “This plan balances those needs to stabilize the market and prevent a sharp correction that would be harmful to everyone,” Wynne told reporters at the Williams Landing‎ pub in Liberty Village on Thursday against a backdrop of gleaming condo towers.

Source: thestar April 20, 2017 13:41 UTC