Hopes Of Gaining Foreign Investors In China Failed For Real Estate Agents In Calgary

As home sales in Toronto and Vancouver remain surging, real estate agents are searching for options to hit up the market. Emma May, a real estate agent expected Vancouver’s foreign buyers tax would help her sell some pine away Calgary homes. However, in spite of her best efforts to attract Chinese buyers over the past year, she hasn’t seen much curiosity in Calgary properties. “We got lots of consideration, but it just hasn’t happened yet.” Said May.

Vancouver, which placed a 15% tax imposition on foreign buyers last July has been driving off foreign buyers away, whilst Ontario is considering a similar measure.

Charles Real estate, which May Co-founded, saw Calgary as an investment and opted to assist Calgary property owners. To entice foreign buyers, it marketed on an online Chinese website called Juwai.com and hired a Chinese micro-site and fashioned mobile advertising. It also hired a real estate agent in Hong Kong.

“There are two types of Chinese investors. There’s the Chinese investor who purchases a really big house here and moves his family and the kids go to school and they go back and forth. Right?  And then there are the people investing in larger projects, really just the speculative type of stuff,” May said. But regrettably for her and the Calgary clients looking to sell, she wasn’t able to sell any Calgary properties to Chinese buyers.

May stated that she is totally aware of the bearing foreign investment has had on the great cities of Toronto and Vancouver.

“It certainly hurt those markets in a way that has a social effect above and beyond just getting the house sold. We were in a middle of a downturn last year and in 2015. We were sitting on quite a bit of product. We have a responsibility to do the best for our sellers. If local people aren’t buying, what do we do?”

J C Loum