Could Foreign Investors Be Ignoring Calgary And Montreal Housing Markets?
As a result of the recent tax invasion trend in the Greater Vancouver area and Toronto, Brad Lamb, Real Estate Developer, decided to shift attention to China’s housing market.
Mr. Lamb, founder of Lamb Development Corp. tried with a Chinese online real estate portal Juwai.com as a result of Calgary’s surplus list of unsold Condominiums to see if he could generate foreign buyers. He posted listings for developments in Calgary and Edmonton.
But it seems like Chinese buyers are more interested in dealing with Chinese Brokers than investing Calgary.
“I gotta tell you, it’s been a gigantic waste of time” Mr. Lamb said. “They’ll have their kick at Montreal and maybe Calgary, but they’ll never be as big as Vancouver or Toronto.”
There has been a huge alternative lookout by Realtors in Canada to cool the overheated real estate price growth in Vancouver and Toronto. Fortunately, Calgary and Montreal has always been the target.
These two cities are less expensive with direct flights to China than Vancouver and Toronto. But they are not comparable to Vancouver and Toronto in terms of lucrative investments.
According to The Globe, “Recently in Montreal, some real estate brokers were excited to report foreign buyers were helping move downtown condos and million-dollar homes in Westmount and the West Island – markets segments that had long languished.”
Housing prices in Montreal grew by 6 per cent in May compared to last Year May , while the volume of sales hit the this month’s record with a 15 per cent growth.
“Montreal is in a relatively unique position in Canada because it has data on foreign buyers. Each residential transaction in Quebec is recorded at the provincial land registry with the residency of the purchaser. Quebec market research firm JLR scrapes data from the registry,” noted the Globe.
About a year ago, in Montreal, there was a 60 per cent foreign purchase increment, according to JLR, a Quebec market research firm. This translates into an increase from 477 sales to 766, making it 1.3 per cent of the 57, 500 residential real estate transactions in Montreal.
Foreign buyers in the Toronto market should total an estimate of 5 per cent, but according to the British Columbia’s government, an estimation of 4.2 per cent foreign buyers make up the market this spring.
“The strength of the American dollar remains a significant amplifying factor in Montreal,” noted JLR economist, Joanie Fontaine.
Foreign buyers have a different profile in Montreal than the other major cities, American and French buyers still outnumber the Chinese, she further noted.
