BC's newly introduced foreign national real-estate tax, currently levied in Metro Vancouver, has already made a province-wide impact. Citified.ca
The province has released figures on British Columbia real-estate sales activity since the introduction of a 15% Metro Vancouver foreign ownership tax that came into effect on August 2nd.
Between June 10th and August 1st a total of 30,126 property sales were recorded province-wide, of which 8.4%, or 2,519, were attributed to foreign nationals. The value of all purchases was $20.5 billion, with $2.6 billion associated to non-Canadians.
Following the introduction of the tax the period between August 2nd and 31st shows foreign investment sharply decreased to just 1.4% of the month’s 17,808 purchases, equalling 249 transactions valued at $156 million.
In Metro Vancouver just under 15,000 property sales between June 10th and August 1st were pegged at $14.1 billion, with 13.2% attributed to foreign investment. Come August, foreign buyers represented only 0.9% of 6,964 transactions, or $47 million of the $6.54 billion total.
Specific to the capital region where no foreign buyer tax exists, 90 real-estate transactions involved foreign nationals between June 10th and August 1st, accounting for 3.9% of sales. Throughout August activity dropped compared to the previous period by 50% to 45 transactions, or 3.7% of the 1,214 total. Foreign investment in southern Vancouver Island real-estate was $101.2 million between June 10th and August 31st.
Speaking to reporters in Kelowna earlier today, Premier Christy Clark said the tax “had the impact we wanted to have,” adding that she was confident many homes that would have sold to foreign buyers will now be available to British Columbians.
Since the introduction of the tax the province has collected $2.5 million in revenues from foreign investors. C
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