Non-resident ownership
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s latest housing market insight report grabbed headlines last week thanks to the details it provided on non-resident ownership of residential real estate in Metro Vancouver and B.C. as a whole last year.
When it comes to properties owned exclusively by non--resident owners, B.C. isn’t much different from Nova Scotia, at 3.7%. However, the report indicated that Metro Vancouver leads the country when it comes to foreign ownership, with 4.9% of residential properties owned exclusively by non-resident owners. Apartments appear to be the most appealing property type for non-resident owners; in Metro Vancouver, 8.3% are owned by non-residents. The largest concentration in the region is at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where 19.6% of apartments and 16.9% of all residential properties are foreign-owned.
This is consistent with the 2016 census data that indicated 26.6% of units at UBC were not occupied by their usual residents on census day.
But diving into the latest ownership data yields some surprising revelations.
The areas with the highest proportion of foreign-owned residences after UBC include Telegraph Creek (13.5%), Greenwood (11.9%), the West Chilcotin (11.7%) and the tiny community of Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island (9.9%).
Similarly, the issue of foreign-owned condominium apartments (if an issue it is) isn’t limited to UBC or Metro Vancouver. Right up there with the double-digit rate at UBC is the area west of Greenwood to the summit of Anarchist Mountain and Big White ski resort, where 17.9% of condos have non-residdent owners.
Foreign landowners
Speculation was a big issue during the public consultation on ways to revitalize the Agricultural Land Commission and the 11.6 million acres it oversees. Concerns over purchases of protected farmland in areas like Richmond for the purpose of raising houses rather than crops tied many knickers in knots.
But data from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program of Statistics Canada indicates that Richmond ranks 25th in the province when it comes to foreign ownership of vacant residential land, at just 7%. Metro Vancouver as a whole posts a rate of 2.5%.
These seem tame compared with Lions Bay, where non-resident ownership of vacant land checks in at 25%. Greenwood follows with 19.3% of vacant land in foreign hands. Central Okanagan is in third place, with 15% of properties owned by non-residents, while Alert Bay and Dease Lake both have 14.3% of their lands owned by non-residents.
Ranks of appeal
The data regarding non-resident ownership can also be read as an indication of which markets are most desirable to outside investors. In this case, Metro Vancouver wins hands down at 4.9%.
The three other metropolitan areas in B.C. on which Statistics Canada reports all have lower rates of non-resident ownership of residential properties. To no one’s surprise, the capital region comes in second with a foreign ownership rate of 3%. Kelowna, the metropolitan hub of B.C.’s Interior, reports a foreign ownership level of 2.7%. •
