I’m writing this letter because I don’t believe the average Whistler resident is aware of how much money the provincial government plans to extract from the Whistler property market over the next 20 years in the form of the Property Transfer Tax (PTT). An explanation follows.
In 2022, according to Whistler real estate statistics, 524 units sold at a median price of $1.2 million. This means the PTT median value was $26,000. For now, we’ll ignore the accelerating rates of tax for houses more expensive than the median price, versus the lesser tax for those below.
Assuming the real estate market appreciation stabilizes over the next 20 years to seven per cent per year, the median value of real estate could go to $4.8 million. If we assume the overall number of units sold per year stays the same (which is probably a conservative assumption), the median PTT per unit would climb to $158,000. So although property prices quadrupled, the PTT per unit will have increased more than six times.
A total of 524 units at $158,000 per unit equals a total tax haul (on just the PTT) of $82.8 million per year. This is a conservative estimate, as it underestimates the high tax percentage on homes way above the median. To put this take in perspective, Whistler’s current revenue from property taxes is approximately $45.6 million!
The provincial NDP government has definitely found a new cash cow. And, although I find this escalating form of asset tax that does not take one’s income into account to be unfair, I do think at a minimum that this PTT windfall should be at least 50-per-cent shared with the municipality from which it is being extracted!
