Vancouver council has approved Canada’s first-ever tax on vacant homes, despite hearing from a raft of people who say it will penalize owners of modest second homes who use their properties regularly instead of pure investors. The city’s mayor defended the tax as an essential part of the response to the region’s housing crisis. Mayor

British Columbia home prices continued to drop sharply last month but the declines are being driven by the Vancouver market where sales continue to slump, say realtors in the province. The British Columbia Real Estate Association, which represents about 20,000 realtors, said Tuesday that there 7,272 sales through Multiple Listing Service last month, a 16.7

Toronto’s real estate sales climbed more than 11 per cent in October compared with a year earlier, despite the introduction of new federal mortgage rules aimed at cooling the region’s overheated housing market. The average price of all homes across the Toronto region rose 21 per cent to $762,975 last month, compared to October 2015,