It’s a relatively easy political lift for lawmakers because the pied-a-terre buyers don’t vote in New York. That doesn’t mean it won’t cost New Yorkers because if sales and prices on high-priced properties drop, that will mean less tax revenue, opponents say. The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Senator Brad Hoylman who represents many of New York’s high-end neighborhoods, calls for a sliding scale of taxes and fees based on the value of the unit.

Properties over $5 million would be subject to the tax surcharge, starting at 0.5 percent of the home value to a maximum rate of 4 percent on homes above $25 million. A part-time owner of a $10 million unit, for example, would have to shell out an extra $45,000 a year.

Infrastructure Crisis
“We have a mass transit system that is in crisis, public housing that is falling down around its residents and a yawning gap between the very wealthy and ordinary NYers that is driving this conversation,” Hoylman said in a March 11 tweet.

Hoylman says that there are only 5,400 units in New York above $5 million that are owned by non-residents. But it’s unclear how many absentee buyers and sellers are trading homes in that range, which represents the top 8 percent of sales, according to Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.

If the bill passes, New York would be far from alone, following other international destinations that have already instituted similar measures, from Vancouver and Hong Kong to Paris and London.

“New York is one of the last major cities to start thinking about some sort of punishment for international investors, or investors in general,” said Miller. “If it passes, it will be the salad days for appraisal work, with people trying to figure out if they’re in the $5 million threshold.”

Opponents include the Real Estate Board of New York, whose president, John Banks, said the “legislature should conduct an analysis to clarify the harmful impact this tax would have on development, real estate sales and rentals as well as the loss of construction jobs and tax revenue that results from such employment."

‘Class Warfare’
They also include brokers like Olshan, who likens it to “class warfare,” casting some of her best clients as villains. Why punish them, she asks, for being rich and living more of the time somewhere else?

“This whole idea of get out the pitchfork and burn the palace down leads to bad decision-making,” Olshan said.

Rachel Ostow Lustbader, a broker with Warburg Realty, says pied-a-terre buyers may not pay income tax but they pay “plenty.”