Rate of ownership far exceeds other ethnic groups: study
Wency Leung
Sun
GRANT M c KENZIE/VANCOUVER SUN SOURCE: The Decision to buy: Immigrant Characteristics and Homeownership Trends
The rate of homeownership amongst Canadians of Chinese descent is about 10 per cent higher than the national average, and far surpasses all other ethnic groups, although immigrants from mainland China are more likely to rent homes than those from Hong Kong, according to new research by a University of Victoria professor.
Based on the most recent 2001 Statistics Canada census data, 75 per cent of heads of Canadian households who are of Chinese origin own homes, compared with 63 per cent who identified themselves as non-immigrants, 67 per cent of those of European origin, and 65 per cent of those of multiple origin, said Barry Edmonston from the university’s sociology department.
While that has changed little since the early 1990s when homeownership amongst Canada’s Chinese population was 76 per cent, Edmonston said more recent immigrants have come from mainland China, rather than Hong Kong, which provided a surge of immigrants during the 1980s and 1990s. That has caused some significant shifts in home-buying trends, Edmonston said.
“The differences in those groups is really very strong,” he said by telephone Monday.
Edmonston studied immigrant populations in Toronto, and found that the large wave of Hong Kong immigrants during the 1980s and 1990s tended to settle in suburban areas, or in neighbourhoods outside the downtown core, where they could buy a home.
In comparison, more recent immigrants from mainland China are settling primarily in the downtown area, and are almost always renting.
“They seldom buy [homes] in the first five to six years,” he said. “They probably will eventually buy, but they’re not buying homes as quickly as immigrants from Hong Kong were buying.”
Unlike those from Hong Kong, recent immigrants from mainland China may not have had any previous experience owning a home and securing a mortgage, he said.
He added that new immigrants are also usually young, in their 20s, and are more likely to buy a home after 10 or 20 years, when they are older, have more money, and are more integrated into the country.
He noted, however, that the average financial savings for new Chinese immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2000 and 2001 was higher than almost all other ethnic groups.
Citing a University of Alberta study, Edmonston said average savings for Chinese immigrants was $40,000, compared with Europeans with $27,000, and Japanese with $36,000.
Edmonston said his research indicates Chinese immigrants are adapting well to life in Canada, but more research must be done to study variations within that group and other groups that have low homeownership rates.
“There’s some factors there that are related to ethnicity we don’t know now,” he said.