— The Decline of Vancouver: "CHMC released a survey in 2014 indicating that only 3.4 percent of property in Vancouver was owned by foreign buyers. Within days, this statistic quickly disseminated to newspapers and other media outlets as gospel truth and a cut and dry case that foreign ownership wasn’t actually affecting property prices.
There were several problems with this survey that the media largely ignored. One problem was that its figures excluded the tens of thousands of Canadians (30-50% of whom estimated to buy property in Vancouver) who bought their residency through the recently defunct Immigrant Investor Program. According to our Immigration Minister “There is little evidence that immigrant investors as a class are maintaining ties to Canada or making a positive economic contribution to the country”. Indeed, there is an estimated 300,000 – 400,000 Canadians living in China, the majority of whom are ethnic Chinese.
It’s worth noting that a large minority of immigrant investors fraudulently claimed they would move to Quebec upon residency in order to eschew the longer waits of moving to British Columbia, and subsequently purchased property in Vancouver. The funds generated from this program thus accrue to the Quebec government and represent billions of dollars in loss for B.C. Not only is BC absorbing a disproportionate number of wealthy migrants but its also not receiving its commensurate share of the proceeds as a result of fraud. That’s a whole other can of beans, though.
The second flaw with the CMHC report is that the 3.4 percent rate of foreign ownership is grossly underestimated even if you ignore the “bought” citizenship problem of above. If you consider that foreigners disproportionately buy detached homes as opposed to condos, the problem is further magnified. For instance, A 2011 study by Landcor Data showed that 74 per cent of luxury purchases in Richmond and Vancouver’s west side were by buyers with mainland Chinese names with no western variant. Julia Lau, a real estate agent in Vancouver, told the International Business Times that the figure is closer to 80 percent from her experience."
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There were several problems with this survey that the media largely ignored. One problem was that its figures excluded the tens of thousands of Canadians (30-50% of whom estimated to buy property in Vancouver) who bought their residency through the recently defunct Immigrant Investor Program. According to our Immigration Minister “There is little evidence that immigrant investors as a class are maintaining ties to Canada or making a positive economic contribution to the country”. Indeed, there is an estimated 300,000 – 400,000 Canadians living in China, the majority of whom are ethnic Chinese.
It’s worth noting that a large minority of immigrant investors fraudulently claimed they would move to Quebec upon residency in order to eschew the longer waits of moving to British Columbia, and subsequently purchased property in Vancouver. The funds generated from this program thus accrue to the Quebec government and represent billions of dollars in loss for B.C. Not only is BC absorbing a disproportionate number of wealthy migrants but its also not receiving its commensurate share of the proceeds as a result of fraud. That’s a whole other can of beans, though.
The second flaw with the CMHC report is that the 3.4 percent rate of foreign ownership is grossly underestimated even if you ignore the “bought” citizenship problem of above. If you consider that foreigners disproportionately buy detached homes as opposed to condos, the problem is further magnified. For instance, A 2011 study by Landcor Data showed that 74 per cent of luxury purchases in Richmond and Vancouver’s west side were by buyers with mainland Chinese names with no western variant. Julia Lau, a real estate agent in Vancouver, told the International Business Times that the figure is closer to 80 percent from her experience."
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