Economy

Vancouver condos most popular with non-resident owners

March 13, 2019 08:35·
A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation economist says 10.4 per cent of condos in B.C. have at least one non-resident owner

A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation economist says 10.4 per cent of condos in B.C. have at least one non-resident owner

A report from Statistics Canada and the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation looked into the percentage of properties with at least one owner whose primary home is not in Canada.

Vancouver has the highest percentages for both categories of the Canadian housing markets examined in the study.

The data doesn't show the same kind of value gap between non-resident owned single-detached homes in Ontario and those owned by residents, but the gap widens when it comes to newer units, especially condominiums.

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.

In Nova Scotia, foreign buyers aren't interested in the city, with picturesque places like Cape Breton Island and the province's south shore driving up overall rates of non-resident ownership. While in Ontario, 3.3 per cent of the properties are partially owned by non-resident and 2.1 per cent belong to non-resident only. In Ontario, non-resident owners hold 3.3 per cent of all properties and 6.1 per cent of condos.

"In general, non-resident ownership is more frequent in the newer and higher value residential properties", said Aled ab Iorwerth, CMHC's deputy chief economist.

For single detached homes, the value gap in British Columbia between non-residents and residents was $236,000.

Vancouver condos most popular with non-resident owners

However, he predicted the luxury home market has already been affected by all those taxes, including the foreign-buyers tax, empty homes tax and the speculation tax, and the impact will continue among out-of-town buyers.

When it comes to condos, nearly half of those owned by people who live outside of Canada are in Vancouver, followed by Richmond then Burnaby.

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.

For example, 1.4 per cent of detached single-family homes were owned by non-residents a year ago, yet the value differential - the median assessment value of those homes compared to resident-owned properties - was $109,000 higher.

In Vancouver proper, the average difference in value is $1.1 million.

They own 11.2 per cent of homes constructed between 2011 and 2015, and less than six per cent for homes built between 1961 and 1990. However, CMHC and Statistics Canada analysts explained Tuesday that the data the agencies have collected so far doesn't yet cover enough time to see whether those policies are having the desired effect.

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