Foreign buyers were leading investors in West Vancouver before the tax

In the weeks prior to the introduction on the 15% tax on foreign investors, close to 24% of all sale activity in the West Vancouver area came from foreigners, suggesting that the real estate market in area recorded one of the highest foreign buyers before the tax was implemented, with Richmond and Burnaby hot on its trail with 27% and 24% respectively.

Additionally, foreign funds accounted for 16.5% of all real estate revenue during the same period. Out of the 252 sales that took place before the tax was implemented, foreign buyers accounted for 47 which is about 19%.

Data went on to highlight that foreign investors were more willing to spend on real estate than local investors. While foreigners spent appropriately $4 million per property, local investors spent $2.8 million. This figures shows that foreigners have a much greater interest in the real estate market than Canadians.

But following the introduction of the tax, foreign buyers’ involvement in the real estate market declined significantly with less than five sales taking place in August in West Vancouver and throughout the remaining months of 2016, this trend continued to be evident.

Although foreign buyers are also present in North Vancouver real estate, they are in lesser number than in the West with 11.6% of sales accounted for foreign buyers prior to the tax that was a 56 of 616 transactions.

Similarly, foreign buyers in North Vancouver purchased more costly homes than locals with foreigners buying homes for an average price of $1.8 million while locals buy at $1 million.