residential
FOREIGN BUYERS: A SMALL AND STEADY SHARE
In August 2016, BC’s provincial government implemented the first of what would be many interventionist housing market policies aimed at curbing demand, the foreign buyer tax (equal to 15% of a residential property’s purchase price). Since then, additional national, provincial, and municipal-level policies have been introduced in an attempt to bring more balance to markets in Canada, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver. Since the original implementation of the foreign buyer tax, and through its increase to 20% in February 2018, the proportion of sales in Metro Vancouver with foreign involvement has mainly oscillated between 2%-5%. Over the past year a trend appeared
to emerge after the share of sales with foreign involvement dipped to 1.6% in July, with increases that brought the share to 4.1% by November, before it slipped back to 2.8% in December. The month-to-month variations notwithstanding, foreign buyers account for a small proportion of sales in Metro Vancouver. The same can also be said—perhaps even more so—for BC’s other metropolitan areas, with the most recent data showing foreign buyers involved in only 2.1% of sales in Kelowna, 1.1% in Victoria, and 0.6% in the Fraser Valley. For the foreseeable future, the lack of foreign buyers is unlikely to change in these regions or in Metro Vancouver.
BC'S MARKETS NOT BEING DRIVEN BY FOREIGN BUYERS ›
5.2%
4.5%
4.1%
3.2%
3.1%
3.0%
2.9%
2.8%
2.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.6%
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
2017
2018
2.0%
1.6%
2.4%
1.4%
1.7%
0.6%
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Fraser Valley
Victoria
3.3%
3.7%
4.4%
3.1%
3.4%
3.4%
0.7%
n/a
1.4%
0.8%
1.5%
1.1%
n/a
Kelowna
1.5%
2.7%
2.2%
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
1.3%
0.0%
0.8%
2.1%
n/a
SOURCE: BC MINISTRY OF FINANCE
DATA: SHARE OF RESIDENTIAL SALES WITH FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT
42
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