Government data shows foreign buyers make up five per cent of Metro Vancouver market

Foreign nationals make up 5.1 per cent of home buyers in Metro Vancouver, according to the first set of real estate transaction data released by the provincial government today. 

“We wrote the Minister of Finance earlier this year asking him to again track the residency of home buyers in BC and we applaud the government for taking action on this issue,” Dan Morrison, Board president said. “The housing affordability challenge we face is of critical importance to all of us in the region and it’s important that this debate be based on facts. We look forward to the province releasing larger data sets in the future to further inform this conversation.” 

The government will continue to release this data each month. The current set covers transactions between June 10 and June 29, 2016.

The data is collected when owners register their property at the Land Title Office and the Property Transfer Tax is paid. Individuals must disclose if they’re a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or if their citizenship if not Canadian. Corporations must disclose their directors’ citizenship.

The report is available here.

Additional findings include:

• 10,148 residential real estate transactions in BC, totalling more than $7.6 billion.

• 337 transactions (3.3 per cent) involved foreign nationals, worth $390 million (5.1 per cent).

• In Metro Vancouver, there were 5,118 transactions worth nearly $5.4 billion, of which 260 involved foreign nationals (5.1 per cent), worth $351 million (6.5 per cent)

• In the City of Vancouver, there were 1,139 transactions, totalling more than $1.6 billion. 47 of these involved foreign nationals (4.1 per cent), worth $64 million (3.9 per cent).