HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Honolulu City Council Bill 46 aims at freeing up vacant homes by taxing its owners up to 3 percent of its property tax assessed value. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The council voted on moving the bill to full council for approval. The bill was introduced back in August by Council Chair Tommy Waters following a UHERO study which found Honolulu had the highest rent in the nation, and the median house price was $1.1 million. "That means you have to earn $254,000 to afford your mortgage," Waters said before the budget hearing on Thursday. He said another study by DBEDT stated Honolulu needed to build 25,000 units to find a balance. "We can’t build all those units all at once, we have to be creative and find a way to get people into housing," Waters explained. "We can build, but we also have to fill, which means filling these empty homes. The census says statewide there are approximately 34,000 empty units, on Oahu we believe there are 18,000 units – even if we fill half of those that makes a huge dent in the backlog." Waters said approximately 18,000 property tax bills are sent off-island to people who don't live here. The taxed revenue would go towards affordable housing, but the city's Director of Budget and Fiscal Services asked council to slow down and wait for a half-million dollar study to be completed to see how much of an impact the law would have. HPD bike officer in serious condition after collision "The number of exemptions that have been added to the bill that I believe could extremely water down the amount of homes that are 'empty' based on what we can actually validate and what can actually be supported," explained Andy Kawano, budget director. There are nearly 20 exemptions on the current bill, including deployed military, homeowners exemption, legal vacation rentals, death in the family, caregivers, and long-term renters to name a few. The study being conducted is almost finished with Phase 1, according to Kawano, which would provide the city with feedback from other cities who have implemented similar laws, like Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Kawano also noted there might not be enough staff available to enforce the new law, which would go into effect in 2027. He added that the goal of the study was to come up with estimates of revenue and estimated counts of empty homes and to come up with an operating budget for the administrative unit. Waters said the city already paid for a study to look into an empty home tax back in 2021. "We hired UCLA to do this, and the recommendation of this study, 'we recommend that the city and county of Honolulu implement a robust and enforceable empty homes tax,'" Waters told Kawano. "We've already paid for this." Sen. Schatz says partisanship is roadblock to Maui funding Waters said the time to implement the law is now. "This study was done in 2021, three years ago, you know as well as I do that I introduced this very same measure three times already," he added. "I think the time is now, we can't wait, we can't build our way out of this [housing crisis], this one is just one tool, it's not going to be the silver bullet, but it's a tool that we can use to fill those empty homes." He said Hawaii also has one of the lowest property tax rates in the country which entices wealthy individuals to temporarily own here before selling. According to the City of Vancouver, the empty homes tax is reducing the number of vacant residential properties in Vancouver. The law was implemented back in 2017, and from then to 2022, the number of vacant properties decreased by 54 percent based on data collected by the City under the Empty Homes Tax program. The website also states data had highlighted 'positive impact of the EHT on Vancouver's rental housing supply. "The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation also observed a significant shift toward long-term rental in Vancouver from 2018 to 2019 following the introduction of EHT and the Speculation and Vacancy Tax, with an increase of 5,920 condominium units in the long-term rental stock," the website reads. The City of Vancouver's report states the overall number of condominium units in the rental pool reported by CMHC continues to increase due to both increasing supply and a shift toward long term rental, with the EHT continuing to encourage the shift toward long-term rental and maintaining the use of existing units as long-term rental. The City of Vancouver states since the tax launched in 2017, more than $142 million of net revenue has been allocated to support affordable housing initiatives. For Honolulu, the city would have homeowners prove property status each year. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Evidence would include: proof of principal place of residence of the owner, tenant, or occupant for six months in the tax year, including vehicle registration, driver's license, utilities records; tenancy agreements; proof of receiving medical care; proof of sale or transfer of ownership for the property; death certificate; court orders; proof of deployment; and building permit applications.