A proposal by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for a tax on apartments and homes of over $5 million would "devalue" properties in the city, New York real estate broker Chris Pepe told
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
The proposal would exempt primary residences, but Pepe predicted if the tax went into effect, it would cause a "monetary uproar" and a "devaluation of these high-end secondary properties."
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"This tax will definitely devalue new construction and existing properties that are worth more than $5 million to secondary homeowners or investors," Pepe said Friday.
The plan would also cause investors to "reconsider investing in the Borough of Manhattan," Pepe said, and could "drown our economy overall" if there was a ripple effect and officials of other localities decided to do the same.
If implemented, the public reaction would be "extremely negative," Pepe predicted, and anticipated higher income residents would "definitely fight it."
"They would be successful, and they would win a retraction of this tax, because of all the power that these people would have," he said.
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