More foreigners buying new condos in Toronto than Vancouver: study

Dec 20 2017, 5:14 am

New condos are springing up everywhere in Vancouver – and the received wisdom is that many of them are being bought up by foreign owners.

But a new study has found it might not be as extreme as all that. In fact, more new condos are being bought by foreign owners in Toronto than in Vancouver.

The study, by the federal government’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, looked at foreign ownership of condos, new and old, in the Toronto and Vancouver census metropolitan areas.

In Vancouver, it found foreign owners had bought 6% of condos completed since 2010, while for new Toronto condos, that figure rose to 10%.

As for older condos completed in the 1990s,said the study, in Toronto 1.4% has been bought by overseas investors, while in Vancouver that figure is higher at 4.4%.

“This report represents another piece in the puzzle of foreign investment in Canada,” said Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC.

Nevertheless, these figures are still comparatively high for Canada. In Calgary, for example, only 0.2% of condos built since 2010 have foreign owners. In Montreal, that figure is 1.2%.

Further analysis of foreign ownership in Vancouver is hampered by a lack of statistics, something the federal government is attempting to rectify.

Justin Trudeau recently pledged half a million dollars to StatsCan to help them find a way to more accurately monitor foreign ownership of Canadian real estate.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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