Foreign Investors From China Buy One-Third of Vancouver Homes

A new report by the National Bank of Canada estimates that foreign investors From China buy one-third of homes in Vancouver. Of the $38 billion in Vancouver residential real estate sales in 2015, buyers from China were responsible for a third.

They accounted for $9 billion of the $63 billion deals in Toronto. Peter Routledge, a financial analyst from National Bank of Canada stated that the calculation is based on deriving inferences or hypotheses for Canada from the U.S. National Association of Realtors.

The U.S. National Association of Realtors produces an annual profile of home buying activity by international investors. There are no data collections like this in Canada.

The association's definition of an international buyer includes non-resident foreigners and resident foreigners who are recent immigrants or temporary visa holders.

According to the association, an estimated $US 28.6 billion was invested by Chinese buyers in U.S-domiciled residential real estate properties over the 12 month ending March 31, 2015, an increase from just $4.1 billion in the year 2009.

In order to determine an equivalent purchase volume for buyers from China in Vancouver and Toronto might be, Peter Routledge searched for useful survey data from where we can obtain reasonable hypotheses. He used a Financial Times multiple choice survey of 77 high net worth and influential mainland Chinese individuals which he admitted was not a statistically significant sample size.

According to this survey, those who bought residential properties outside China, 35.5 per cent had purchased in the U.S. particularly in New York and Los Angeles as well as San Francisco. 11.7 per cent of those surveyed purchased residential real estate in Vancouver and 8.3 per cent bought in Toronto.

Peter Routledge stated that from this one could hypothesize that for every four high net worth buyers from China who purchase a U.S. property, one purchases a residence in Toronto. For every three high net worth investors from China who purchase a U.S. residence, one purchases a residential property in Vancouver.

Reference: The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/…/chinese+…/11804486/story.html…