IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cdh/commen/364.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stuck in Place: The Effect of Land Transfer Taxes on Housing Transactions

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Dachis

    (C.D. Howe Institute)

Abstract

Numerous provinces and municipalities across Canada levy Land Transfer Taxes (LTTs). An LTT is a charge paid to a municipality or provincial government, upon the sale or transfer of real estate or similar immovable object. LTTs can be expensive, and make up a significant portion of the expenses associated with ordinary housing transactions, making moving more costly. The higher transaction costs, owing to the LTT, may cause some households to tolerate living in ill-suited homes for longer than they would have otherwise desired. Other potential effects of LTTs include government revenue volatility, commercial real estate market distortions, and higher construction costs. Municipalities that levy LTTs should limit themselves to other revenue-raising tools and replace the LTT with a revenue-equivalent property tax levy. Provincial governments that impose an LTT should replace their LTTs with revenue from value-added taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Dachis, 2012. "Stuck in Place: The Effect of Land Transfer Taxes on Housing Transactions," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 364, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdh:commen:364
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cdhowe.org/stuck-place-effect-land-transfer-taxes-housing-transactions
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Andrews & Aida Caldera Sánchez & Åsa Johansson, 2011. "Housing Markets and Structural Policies in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 836, OECD Publishing.
    2. Dan Andrews, 2010. "Real House Prices in OECD Countries: The Role of Demand Shocks and Structural and Policy Factors," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 831, OECD Publishing.
    3. Michel Beine & Serge Coulombe & Wessel N. Vermeulen, 2015. "Dutch Disease and the Mitigation Effect of Migration: Evidence from Canadian Provinces," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 1574-1615, December.
    4. Rupert, Peter & Wasmer, Etienne, 2012. "Housing and the labor market: Time to move and aggregate unemployment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 24-36.
    5. Christian A. L. Hilber & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2012. "The Effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on Household Mobility," SERC Discussion Papers 0115, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Benjamin, John D & Coulson, N Edward & Yang, Shiawee X, 1993. "Real Estate Transfer Taxes and Property Values: The Philadelphia Story," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 151-157, September.
    7. Bev Dahlby & Michael Smart & Benjamin Dachis, 2009. "New Housing and the Harmonized Sales Tax: Lessons from Ontario," C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 119, October.
    8. Benjamin Dachis & Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2008. "Sand in the Gears: Evaluating the Effects of Toronto's Land Transfer Tax," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 277, December.
    9. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h48256647 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adam Found & Peter Tomlinson, 2012. "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Harmful Impact of Provincial Business Property Taxes," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 368, December.
    2. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2017. "Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-73.
    3. Christian A. L. Hilber & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2012. "The Effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on Household Mobility," SERC Discussion Papers 0115, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Philip Cross & Philippe Bergevin, 2012. "Turning Points: Business Cycles in Canada Since 1926," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 366, October.
    5. Benjamin Dachis & Adam Found & Peter Tomlinson, 2014. "The 2014 C.D. Howe Institute Business Tax Burden Ranking," e-briefs 187, C.D. Howe Institute.
    6. Benjamin Dachis, 2018. "Fiscal Soundness and Economic Growth: An Economic Program for Ontario," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 505, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Camilli, 2020. "Labor market institutions and homeownership," Working Papers 440, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2020.
    2. European Commission, 2013. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability – 2013 Report," Taxation Papers 38, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    3. Jeroen Hessel & Jolanda Peeters, 2011. "Housing bubbles, the leverage cycle and the role of central banking," DNB Occasional Studies 905, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    4. Fritzsche, Carolin & Vandrei, Lars, 2019. "The German real estate transfer tax: Evidence for single-family home transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 131-143.
    5. Manning Clifford & John Freebairn, 2021. "Stamp duty and equity in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2021n08, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. European Commission, 2011. "Tax Reforms in EU Member States 2011: tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability," Taxation Papers 28, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    7. Maria Chiara Cavalleri & Boris Cournède & Volker Ziemann, 2019. "Housing markets and macroeconomic risks," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1555, OECD Publishing.
    8. Eerola, Essi & Harjunen, Oskari & Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2021. "Revisiting the effects of housing transfer taxes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    9. Martijn I. Dröes & Marc K. Francke, 2018. "What Causes the Positive Price-Turnover Correlation in European Housing Markets?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 618-646, November.
    10. Mr. Tigran Poghosyan, 2016. "Can Property Taxes Reduce House Price Volatility? Evidence from U.S. Regions," IMF Working Papers 2016/216, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Essi Eerola & Oskari Harjunen & Teemu Lyytikäinen & Tuukka Saarimaa, 2019. "Effects of Housing Transfer Taxes on Household Mobility," CESifo Working Paper Series 7750, CESifo.
    12. Ghent, Andra C., 2021. "What’s wrong with Pittsburgh? Delegated investors and liquidity concentration," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 337-358.
    13. Wieser, Robert, 2012. "Stabilising and Destabilising Factors in 14 EU Housing Markets," MPRA Paper 65823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Mr. Luc Eyraud, 2014. "Reforming Capital Taxation in Italy," IMF Working Papers 2014/006, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Judith Yates, 2011. "Housing in Australia in the 2000s: On the Agenda Too Late?," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Hugo Gerard & Jonathan Kearns (ed.),The Australian Economy in the 2000s, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    16. Christian Tutin, 2014. "Statuts d'occupation, endettement des ménages et exubérance des marchés du logement," Post-Print hal-01412376, HAL.
    17. European Commission, 2012. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability – 2012 Report," Taxation Papers 34, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    18. Bertrand Crettez & Marie Obidzinski, 2021. "The Choice of Titling System in Land and the Blockchain," Working Papers hal-04034974, HAL.
    19. Aida Caldera Sánchez & Dan Andrews, 2011. "To Move or not to Move: What Drives Residential Mobility Rates in the OECD?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 846, OECD Publishing.
    20. Ms. Nan Geng, 2018. "Fundamental Drivers of House Prices in Advanced Economies," IMF Working Papers 2018/164, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness; Canadian provincial and municipal governments; Land Transfer Taxes (LTTs); real estate sale or transfer; household mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdh:commen:364. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kristine Gray (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdhowca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.