Report gives insights into B.C.’s non-resident home ownership
Stephanie Ip
The Province
A new housing report offers detailed insight into how much of B.C.’s property market actually belongs to non-residents.
Compiled by the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, the report outlines the differences between non-resident owners and non-resident participation in the B.C. housing market, and whether assessments vary depending on the type of ownership.
The report classifies a home as non-resident owned when the majority of owners are non-residents; homes are classified as resident owned if the majority of owners are residents.
Meanwhile, homes are classified as having non-resident participation if at least one non-resident participates in the ownership.
According to the report, 6.2 per cent of properties in B.C. have at least one non-resident owner: 2.5 per cent of B.C. residential properties are owned by a mix of resident and non-resident owners, while 3.7 per cent are owned strictly by non-resident owners.
The report also found that non-residents were more prevalent in buying up newer properties with greater median assessment values.
Most popular type of property for non-residents? Condominiums.
StatsCan found that 19.2 per cent of all condos built in 2016 and 2017 were owned by at least one non-resident of Canada.
“It’s a pretty high number,” said urban planner Andy Yan, director of the SFU City Program. “It’s not about foreigners, it’s about foreign capital landing in the (local) real estate market.”
And that affects prices because “it’s the marginal player who defines the game,” and sets the pace for home values.
In the Vancouver census metropolitan area, about 8.3 per cent of condominiums were owned by only non-resident owners, while another 2.9 per cent were owned by a mix of resident and non-resident owners.
The percentage of non-resident owners is much lower for other types of housing, such as single-detached (3.2 per cent), semi-detached (3.1 per cent) and row houses (3.6 per cent). Meanwhile, the percentages of mixed resident and non-resident owners overs around 2.5 per cent for each of those three types.
The report is compiled by Statistics Canada by reviewing administrative data and the 2018 property assessment rolls.
Yan said the more transparent the data on how much foreign investment there is in the Canadian market, the better it is for politicians to adapt policy to ensure affordable housing.
“To create policy out of a knowledge base instead of guessing is always better,” said Yan.
He said there are a number of jurisdictions, including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, that do collect data on the citizenship of real estate investors.
“It’s the issue of catching up with the rest of the world,” he said.
He said the data will provide a good baseline for yearly comparisons.
“These are 2017 numbers and a lot has happened since,” including the foreign-buyers tax, the empty home tax and the school tax on $3 million-plus homes.
“It will be interesting to see what happens a year from now,” said Yan.
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