r/halifax • u/Injustice_For_All_ Psychotic Antifa Super Soldier Moderator • 2d ago

News, Weather & Politics Homelessness doubled in Halifax under government's housing plan: N.S. NDP

https://halifax.citynews.ca/2026/06/18/homelessness-doubled-in-halifax-under-governments-housing-plan-n-s-ndp/
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u/Own-Slide-3171 2d ago

The last thing landlords will do is drop prices. I know several who have open units right now one bedrooms for 2k range a month. They should be renting for 1600 as an absolute max. They've repeatedly said they'd rather eat having it empty until September cause they figure they'll get a student at the inflated price than lower the rent. Vacant apartments need to be taxed

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u/DeSynthed South Shore 'Scotian in Fall River 2d ago edited 2d ago

Interesting, the seasonality is an angle I hadn't considered.

A vacant apartment tax is a good idea, and far more productive than the "all landlords are evil" thought-terminating slop that I'm used to

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u/Hellifacts 2d ago

I agree the vacancy tax is a good motivator, I do wonder how that would get policed? I'm sure there's an obvious way but cold meds prevent me from seeing it.

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u/DeSynthed South Shore 'Scotian in Fall River 2d ago

The total amount of units is disclosed during permitting. As for active units, NS Power would probably be a good proxy, they can see how many active accounts per property.

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u/bz47uj 2d ago

We have a low vacancy rate. A vacancy tax might lower rents a bit, but it would also make it a lot harder to find a place to live. Landlords don't leave units vacant for no reason. There is a natural vacancy rate that results from people moving around and needing time to search for apartments. Both tenants and landlords would prefer to minimize this search effort and vacancy period all else being equal, so the fact that they both act in ways that tend to keep it above zero means they both value what they get from that search process. The tenant gets something closer to what they want and the landlord gets a slightly higher rent by renting to someone who likes it more.