Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth
According to fresh data collected by the British Columbia government and released last Tuesday (July 26), foreign buyers purchased over $885 million worth of real estate in Metro Vancouver in the period covering June 10 to July 14.
The amount is approximately 10 per cent of total real estate sales volume in the region over those 5 weeks, reported Roshini Nair for CBC News.
The same data set also revealed that foreign nationals accounted for 18 per cent of all property buyers in Burnaby and Richmond, the Metro Vancouver locales with the greatest number of overseas buyers.
The B.C. government stated that overall, roughly 11 per cent of real estate purchases in Vancouver can be attributed to foreign buyers. The released data did not indicate these buyers’ nationalities.
Foreign nationals have been pinpointed by various analysts as major culprits in the out-of-control growth in Canada’s red-hot real estate segment, which has priced more and more domestic would-be buyers out of the markets.
B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong assured locals that the government is actively working to stem demand and improve existing supply. A newly enacted 15 per cent property transfer tax on foreign buyers of real estate Metro Vancouver is slated to take effect on August 2.
“It’s going to generate a lot of money,” De Jong said of the foreign demand, adding that the increased revenue would be used for more investment in new housing.
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