California has no statewide vacancy tax on residential property. Four California cities impose one locally: Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz. A fifth, San Diego, has a measure on the June 2026 ballot. Rates run from $2,500 to $20,000 per unit per year, and a unit can be treated as vacant after as few as 50 days of non-use in Oakland or 182 days in San Francisco and Berkeley. Everything else depends on which city the property sits in.
Why There Is No Statewide Tax
Legislators have tried. The most recent attempt, SB 789, would have placed a $5-per-square-foot tax on vacant commercial real estate statewide. It failed in the Senate Appropriations Committee, and before it died it had already been scaled back from a tax to a reporting requirement. No comparable bill for residential property has advanced. So the answer at the state level is no, and vacancy taxes exist only where local voters have passed them.
Which Cities Tax Vacant Property
Four cities have active ordinances, each approved by voters:
- Oakland — Measure W (2018), Municipal Code Chapter 4.56. Covers residential and nonresidential property.
- San Francisco — Proposition M (2022), Business and Tax Regulations Code Article 29A. Applies only to residential units in buildings with three or more units.
- Berkeley — Empty Homes Tax, Municipal Code Chapter 7.54. Residential units left vacant for extended periods.
- Santa Cruz — Measure N (2022), Municipal Code Chapter 3.38. Residential parcels.
San Diego’s Measure A, if approved in June 2026, would start collecting in January 2027.
What You Would Owe
Oakland
Oakland charges flat annual amounts based on property type: $6,000 for a residential parcel, $3,000 per vacant unit for condos, duplexes, and townhomes under separate ownership, $6,000 for nonresidential parcels, $3,000 where allowed ground-floor commercial space sits empty, and $6,000 for undeveloped parcels. Revenue funds homelessness programs, affordable housing, code enforcement, and blight cleanup.1City of Oakland. Oakland Municipal Code 4.56 – Vacant Property Tax Ordinance 13571 CMS
San Francisco
San Francisco’s rate escalates with unit size and with each additional consecutive year of vacancy. First-year amounts for a unit vacant more than 182 days run from $2,500 for units under 1,000 square feet to $5,000 for units over 3,000 square feet. Those amounts double in the second consecutive year and quadruple by the third, so the largest units can face $20,000 a year.2San Francisco Department of Elections. Business and Tax Regulations Code Article 29A – Empty Homes Tax
Berkeley
Berkeley starts at $3,000 for single-family homes, condos, duplexes, and townhouses, and $6,000 for other residential unit types. If the same unit remains vacant a second consecutive year, those jump to $6,000 and $12,000. Both tiers adjust annually using the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area Consumer Price Index.3City of Berkeley. Berkeley Empty Homes Tax Guidelines
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz is a flat rate: $6,000 for a single-family residence, $6,000 per parcel for parcels with six or fewer units, and $3,000 per unit for condos and units in buildings with seven or more units. Most of the revenue is directed to affordable housing, with 15% for administration and 5% for homeless sanitation services.4County of Santa Cruz. N – City of Santa Cruz Empty Home Tax Initiative Measure
How Each City Decides a Unit Is Vacant
This is where owners get caught, because the triggers are not aligned.
- Oakland: vacant if in use 50 days or fewer in a calendar year.5City of Oakland. Vacant Property Tax Frequently Asked Questions
- San Francisco: unoccupied more than 182 days in a tax year.2San Francisco Department of Elections. Business and Tax Regulations Code Article 29A – Empty Homes Tax
- Berkeley: unoccupied more than 182 days, whether consecutive or nonconsecutive, in a calendar year.3City of Berkeley. Berkeley Empty Homes Tax Guidelines
- Santa Cruz: in use fewer than 120 days per calendar year.6Santa Cruz County Elections Department. Measure N Fiscal Impact Statement – City of Santa Cruz
Fifty days is barely seven weeks. An Oakland pied-à-terre used only occasionally is almost certainly above the trigger. Berkeley’s “consecutive or nonconsecutive” language also closes the loophole of scattering a few occupied nights across the year to break up a continuous vacancy.
Exemptions That Can Get You Out
Every city carves out situations where an empty unit is not penalized. The categories differ, but several themes recur: active renovation, disaster, owner death and probate, owner in medical care, units under a genuine lease, and nonprofit ownership.
Berkeley offers a full exemption for property owned by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and for an owner living in one unit of a property with four or fewer units as their principal residence who owns no other residential units in the city. On top of those, Berkeley recognizes nine vacancy exclusion periods, including a building permit review period of up to one year, a two-year rehabilitation period after a permit issues, a two-year disaster period, an exclusion while the occupant is in a hospital or long-term care facility, an exclusion while a homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ property tax exemption applies, and an exclusion while the unit is leased to a tenant under a genuine lease. The owner-death exclusion runs the longer of two years or the duration of probate, which matters because California probate often runs 12 to 18 months even in straightforward cases.3City of Berkeley. Berkeley Empty Homes Tax Guidelines
Oakland provides ten allowable exemptions. The practical point for Oakland owners is timing: once the city mails a notice identifying your property as likely vacant, you have 20 days from the notice date to submit an exemption application with supporting evidence through the Oakland Vacant Property Tax Portal.7City of Oakland. Vacant Property Tax Frequently Asked Questions
San Francisco’s exemptions and exclusions live in Section 2955 of Article 29A and track the familiar categories: renovation, hardship, and units under lease. The filing rule matters as much as the exemptions: every owner of residential units subject to the tax must file an annual return even when nothing is vacant and nothing is owed. Skip the filing and the unit is presumed vacant, with the tax applied automatically.
Filing Deadlines and How the Process Starts
Each city runs its own process, and they are not interchangeable.
In Oakland, the city opens the process by mailing a notice to owners it has identified as likely vacant. Owners register on the Vacant Property Tax Portal using their Assessor’s Parcel Number and the Registration ID on the notice, then file a Petition of Vacancy or apply for an exemption. The city issues a confirmation in roughly 120 days.7City of Oakland. Vacant Property Tax Frequently Asked Questions
In San Francisco, owners of units potentially subject to the Empty Homes Tax must file an annual return with the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector regardless of whether any unit was actually vacant.2San Francisco Department of Elections. Business and Tax Regulations Code Article 29A – Empty Homes Tax
In Berkeley, the Rent Stabilization Board mails billing statements and exemption forms to owners of properties believed to have vacant units. Payment is due within 60 days of the statement date, and an owner who wants to appeal the assessment has 30 days from that statement date. Owners disputing an administrative decision on an exemption claim also have 30 days from receipt of that decision.8Berkeley Rent Board. Empty Homes Tax
Across all four cities, the one thing worth doing before any notice arrives is building a paper trail of occupancy: utility bills showing active service, signed leases, homeowners’ exemption filings. The response windows are short enough that scrambling after a notice shows up rarely ends well.
Commercial Space in San Francisco
San Francisco is the only California city that also taxes vacant commercial space. The Commercial Vacancy Tax applies to ground-floor commercial space empty more than 182 days in a calendar year. Owners, tenants, and subtenants of taxable commercial space must file every year regardless of whether the space was vacant.9Treasurer & Tax Collector. Commercial Vacancy Tax
The tax is calculated per linear foot of street frontage: $250 in the first vacant year, $500 in the second consecutive year, and $1,000 in the third consecutive year and after. For the 2025 tax year, filing and payment are due March 2, 2026.10San Francisco Municipal Code. San Francisco Business and Tax Regulations Code – Section 2904 Imposition of Tax
San Diego’s Measure A
San Diego voters will decide Measure A on June 2, 2026. If approved, it would be the highest vacancy tax in California. A home vacant more than 182 days and not the owner’s primary residence would be taxed $8,000 in 2027 and $10,000 in 2028. Corporate-owned vacant properties would carry an additional surcharge of $4,000 in 2027 and $5,000 in 2028. Rates would adjust annually with the Consumer Price Index after that. Failure to pay would carry a 10% penalty and would be a misdemeanor.11Ballotpedia. San Diego, California, Measure A, Issue Vacant Homes Tax Measure (June 2026)
The measure includes exemptions for owner-occupied properties, units under lease, properties made uninhabitable by natural disaster (two years), newly built units within two years of a certificate of occupancy, units where the previous resident is in a medical facility, and properties where the owner or a family member has been temporarily relocated for military service. Owners of four or fewer units who live in one of them would also be exempt.