Somebody always has to take the blame. But the lack of self-reflection causes needless panic among Canadians and the really disappointing fact is that it comes from the one body that should keep an eye on such events and keep them in check – the Canadian Government.
This careless behaviour resulted in the introduction of a tax on foreign buyers of real estate in Vancouver, British Columbia, and negative attitudes.
You can read about who the foreign buyers are here on our blog, but basically we usually talk about mainland Chinese citizens who are getting away from the Communist regime that forbids them from purchasing real estate, build an equity, and, well, the rights we take often take for granted. Anyway, in the newest study carried out by Urbanation there is evidence of foreign ownership being only a small fraction of the new condo market in Toronto.
Domestic investors outnumber foreign buyers 10-to-1! Moreover, only 5 per cent of units sold in the buildings developed between July and September were bought by foreign buyers. On the other hand, Canadians who do not even plan to live in the units they bought made up 52 per cent of the sales. The rest of the units now belong to locals who plan on living in the buildings.
It is human nature to look for a scapegoat, as the BC government has done, while the real culprit is the lack of product in cities that are growing fast in a country that has been less agrarian and more citified, and will continue being like that in the future. The government’s policy has discouraged purpose-built rental product causing Condominiums to fill that gap to serve the publics needs, foreign or Canada born.
The study by Urbanation can be found here.
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