Our View: Luxury Transfer Fee Creates More Options

The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates last week voted to petition the state legislature to allow for a transfer fee to be applied to the sale of high-end real estate on the Cape. At a 10-5 vote, the decision was far from unanimous. In fact, the affirmative vote to advance the petition represents a narrow majority of just 51 percent of the county population. 

 The proposed fee and petition also has not been without its critics from the public. During a public hearing on the proposed fee on Jan. 22, several residents voiced opposition to what they saw as another tax on local property owners. Still others felt that the assembly should focus more of its energy on addressing other pressing matters, such as the region’s water quality issues. 

 But as the regional housing crisis only continues to deepen, the assembly should be commended for working toward a solution. If authorized by the legislature, the proposed transfer fee would allow towns the option of setting a fee between .5 and four percent on property transfers valued at $1,000,001 or more. Ninety percent of the revenue generated through the fee would go back to the community in which the transfer is made, and that money would be used by the town to help create more housing or develop strategies to address the ongoing crisis. It’s clear that there is no silver bullet to the ongoing housing crisis, and that it will take multiple avenues and methodologies to help the region create the affordable and attainable housing that the Cape sorely needs. The transfer fee is one such approach that, applied correctly, could make some measurable difference.

 What’s more, the proposed fee program offers Cape towns the flexibility of choice. Towns can decide whether or not they want to impose the fee, again at a rate of their choosing between .5 and four percent. There is no obligation to participate. Those towns that do opt in also have the option of eliminating it if and when they see fit. They also can create their own exemptions as to who they would like to exclude from the fee. As drafted, the fee program offers a means for the county to generate revenue necessary to address the housing problem without handcuffing or restraining the towns it is designed to help.

 The scarcity of year-round housing on the Cape, as well as its growing cost, is a serious problem that requires serious solutions. It requires outside-the-box thinking, and while the proposed fee is viewed by some as another onerous tax, the assembly deserves credit for taking the time and effort to give the regional housing problem the thought and attention it deserves.