The BC Liberals continue to see out-of-control real estate costs as a good thing even if they price most British Columbians out of the housing market.

Their response to the First Quarter results shows they still can’t shake their obsession with over-inflated Property Transfer Tax revenues that they used to pad their books. PTT revenues nearly tripled in their last four years of government while they ignored impacts on people struggling to find a place to live.

Unlike the BC Liberals, the BC NDP Government is balancing the books while tackling the housing crisis and putting people first. Our Homes For BC Plan introduced measures to stabilize the housing market and make life more affordable. These measures include:

• Taxing speculators who leave homes vacant and drive up housing costs
• Increasing the foreign buyers tax rate by 20 per cent
• Expanding the foreign buyers’ tax to areas outside of Metro Vancouver
• Increasing taxes on the top two per cent of expensive homes

Even as evidence mounts that new measures are working to make housing more affordable, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson continues to oppose them, and said he would reverse them if given the chance.

“Across the board, the BC Liberals have opposed our measures to tackle out-of-control housing costs, and undo the damage caused by their neglect,” said MLA Carole James. “Our BC NDP government will continue to work to make housing more affordable for people living in B.C.”