Blame politicians for Metro Vancouver’s housing price crisis

2016/03/22 1 Comment

More analysis by David Ley on the roots of Vancouver’s housing prices (likely some similarities in Toronto’s overheated housing market although the pressures likely come from a more diverse group):

Canadian politicians, keen to stimulate B.C.’s economy, are responsible for creating the conditions that created Metro Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis, according to a new study.

Politicians decided to “reboot a troubled regional economy through an infusion of activity from the growth region of the Asia Pacific,” UBC geographer David Ley says in a peer-reviewed paper published in The International Journal of Housing Policy.

Largely as a result of governments’ efforts to attract wealthy immigrants and investment from East Asia, “house prices have risen rapidly and the detached housing market is now unaffordable to most Vancouver residents,” writes Ley.

Given that federal, provincial and municipal governments have shown a “minimal response” to Metro residents’ housing difficulties, Ley concludes most politicians have accepted that astronomical prices and mortgage debt are just the “collateral damage” from expanding the B.C. economy.

One of the federal government’s key policy tools for attracting Asia-Pacific money to Metro Vancouver real estate was the business-immigration program, says Ley, a leading expert on how the world’s “gateway” cities are changing because of high in-migration.

The program, which gave preferential treatment to wealthy migrants, proved extremely popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s and in Mainland China since 2000.

More than four out of five of the affluent people who took advantage of Canada’s business-immigrant program have arrived from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Ley found.

And roughly 200,000 of them moved to Metro Vancouver, where they account for almost nine per cent of the population, Ley estimates in his study, titled “Global China and the making of Vancouver’s residential property market.”

Repeated government trade missions to Asia in recent decades also effectively generated East Asians’ desire to invest in Metro Vancouver real estate, where Ley says deregulation meant local citizens would have virtually no legal protections from runaway housing costs.

Vancouver’s Expo 86, which took shape during the 1980s’ recession as a transportation fair, was a key event in Canadian governments’ strategy to market the city to Asians, Ley maintains.

The fair’s promotional power for enticing Asian money to Vancouver real estate, Ley said, boosted even higher when B.C.’s Social Credit government sold much of the Expo lands, at a low cost, to Hong Kong’s richest man, billionaire Li Ka-shing, owner of developer Concord Pacific.

The huge volume of Mainland Chinese multimillionaires who are coming to Metro Vancouver to buy property is out of proportion to the city’s relatively small size, Ley says.

“Vancouver, the closest major city to East Asia and with a high quality of life, is the most popular destination, especially for the wealthiest investor newcomers,” the vast majority of whom concentrate on real estate.

Source: Blame politicians for Metro Vancouver’s housing price crisis

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Marine Le Pen the untouchable?

2016/03/22 Leave a comment

One of the better English summaries of her visit:

The proverbial 10-foot pole has become a popular approach for Quebec politicians in dealing with the leader of France’s far-right party, who arrived in Montreal on Friday.

Marine Le Pen may be among France’s most popular politicians — polls suggest she has enough support to make the run-off stage in the country’s next presidential election — but she has yet to secure a meeting with a mainstream political figure in Canada.

That hasn’t stopped her from wading into federal and provincial politics, sending politicians scurrying for cover.

Canada’s immigration policy an ‘error’

At a news conference in Quebec City on Sunday, Le Pen criticized Canada’s immigration policy, calling it an “error” to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees.

“A multicultural society is a conflicted society,” she said during the news conference.

Le Pen described the current situation in France as warning for Canadians.

“We put out a welcome sign, but what conditions await them? The slums of Calais? This is a policy that makes no sense and is dangerous,” she said referring to a large informal refugee camp near the tunnel underneath the English Channel.

Le Pen has had trouble finding a receptive audience since she arrived in Quebec. A small group of protesters disrupted her Sunday news conference, shouting and unfurling banners with anti-fascist messages.

“Away children, go back to bed,” she told the protesters, saying their behaviour was “unacceptable in a democracy.”

PKP ‘shocked’ at meeting

Le Pen did manage to meet with people claiming to be from the Parti Québécois on Saturday. She told Radio-Canada that she has supporters within the party.

“The PQ is diverse and vast,” Le Pen said. “It’s not monolithic.”

PQ’s leader Pierre Karl Péladeau quickly took to Facebook to dissociate himself from Le Pen, saying he was “shocked” that anyone from his party would meet with her.

The Front National’s values “are diametrically opposed to the values of the Parti Québécois,” Peladeau said.

Source: Marine Le Pen the untouchable? – Montreal – CBC News

My friend Arun shared this article about the coverage in France:

FIASCO – Imaginez le scénario. Vous traversez l’Atlantique, tout content de partir en voyage au Québec, espérant renforcer votre stature internationale et en pensant rencontrer des personnalités politiques locales de premier plan, la présidentielle de 2017 en tête. Vous communiquez même sur ce dernier point. Mais, à peine débarqué de votre avion, vous commencez à déchanter car personne ne veut vous voir. C’est ce qui se passe avec le voyage outre-Atlantique de Marine Le Pen.

D’après divers articles de la presse canadienne, la présidente du Front national, de passage au Canada pour six jours, le temps de passer par Québec et Montreal, n’est pas la bienvenue pour la classe politique locale. Pourtant, le FN avait fait savoir que la candidate à l’élection présidentielle de 2017 allait rencontrer des “politiciens fédéraux” sans plus de précision.

Sauf que Le Devoir a contacté la plupart des hommes et femmes politiques de premier plan et aucun ne veut rencontrer Marine Le Pen. “Tous les partis contactés vendredi, tant au niveau provincial que fédéral, ont indiqué qu’ils n’avaient pas prévu de rencontre avec la politicienne de 47 ans”, écrit de son côté La Presse le 19 mars.

“Au Québec, le porte-parole du premier ministre Philippe Couillard, Harold Fortin, a déclaré que personne au gouvernement n’a l’intention de rencontrer Marine Le Pen”, écrit encore le Devoir sur son site et qui détaille les réponses similaires de nombre d’autres partis. Et Antonine Yaccarini, la porte-parole de l’aile parlementaire du Parti québécois, de résumer le sentiment prédominant chez les politiques québécois :

Nous n’avons pas une minute à consacrer à cette personne-là.

Comme le note également le Devoir, un député a même conseillé sur Radio-Canada à Marine Le Pen de plier bagage et de rentrer en France. Sollicités, les parti “La Coalition avenir Québec” et “Québec solidaire” ont refusé de rencontrer la patronne du FN. Idem du côté du maire de Montréal. Un fiasco.

En déplacement au Québec, Marine Le Pen peine à rencontrer des élus canadiens

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Ottawa needs to build on recent immigration reforms

2016/03/21 Leave a comment

Michel Beine, Robin Boadway and Serge Coulombe, authors of the C.D. Howe Institute publication, Moving Parts: Immigration Policy, Internal Migration and Natural Resource Shocks, argue for a return to the human capital approach to immigration, as per the original policy rational behind IRPA in 2001:

Finally, the new permanent immigration policy prioritizes skills in demand. That preference may decrease the immigration of workers whose skills may be more important in the longer term. The government should address these potential negative consequences as it plans its reforms. Immigration Minister John McCallum recently said he will adjust the express-entry system to facilitate the entry of recent international graduates of Canadian universities into the permanent immigration system. This fixes one of the unintended consequences of the previous government’s reforms.

More consideration should be given to attract immigrants with skills the Canadian economy may need in future, while in less demand today. And the government should continue to promote economic opportunities for Canadian residents seeking employment in their own province or moving to other provinces in search of better opportunities. That could mean policies such as reforming EI to encourage workers to move where the jobs are, or introducing more competition in the airline market to ease travel within Canada.

Canada has historically had an immigration system driven by evidence, not political dogma. The new government should continue with that approach and build on its predecessor’s immigration reforms to help both existing Canadians and businesses that need workers.

Source: Ottawa needs to build on recent immigration reforms – The Globe and Mail

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In British Columbia, a real-estate rage gets real

2016/03/19 Leave a comment

Understandable anger and fears.

The negligence of governments in not addressing the issue, starting with failing to address data gaps that leave space for anecdotes, along with a real estate industry  whose commission-based model only abets property flipping and escalating prices, it is no wonder that people are angry and fearful:

In the last six months, Eby, who unseated Premier Christy Clark in the last election—the kind of brass-knuckled political play rarely seen outside B.C.—has become B.C.’s most-watched opposition figure by skillfully assuming control of the housing debate.

Last November, the 38-year-old Vancouver-Point Grey MLA and former head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association helped a city researcher undertake a study showing that more than 70 per cent of homes sold in Vancouver’s West Side went to Mainland China buyers over a six-month period; remarkably, this was some of the first hard data illustrating the extent of foreign ownership in the local market.

For years, the debate relied mostly on anecdotal evidence. And anyone who dared suggest Chinese buyers were flooding the market was branded a racist—primarily by those with skin in the game, the city’s leading developers and condo marketers whose earnings soared as the market has climbed and climbed and climbed, unchecked. Screaming racism was an effective means to shutter the debate. Until now.

This could yet get ugly. Belcarra, and its “English-only” bylaw, is just the beginning. But in channeling rage over foreign buyers, wild speculative activity, shadow flipping, and realtor misconduct, Eby—rake-thin, young and passionate—has found a way to break the logjam, and tap into something deep and powerful in the psyche of residents of B.C.’s Lower Mainland, where the bulk of the province’s seats are found. There are few more powerful emotions in politics than anger. And for the first time in years, the NDP have found an issue with widespread appeal.

“People are really upset,” Eby said Wednesday night. “Their wages have no connection to the amount of money that is being charged for rent and for housing. People think their kids aren’t going to be able to afford to live here, they see the communities they love really no longer belonging to the community.”

“My younger child is sleeping in my bathroom,” said Jennifer Lloyd, a UBC researcher, who spoke after Eby. Lloyd and her husband, who both have PhDs and can only afford a tiny, rented condo for their family of four.

“This is not a generational issue, this is not a class issue,” said Lloyd. “I want to know that the virtues that I hold dear—hard work, educating ourselves, trying to better our lives—mean something in this city.”

It’s still far from clear that this surging anger risks unseating Clark, in an election slated for next spring. But right now, few are talking about the premier. And no one can seem to get enough of David Eby. One year before an expected election, that’s a dangerous place for the premier to be.

Source: In British Columbia, a real-estate rage gets real – Macleans.ca

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Immigration: «Il faut faire les choses plus rapidement» | Interview with Minister McCallum

2016/03/18 Leave a comment

Quebec__Ontario__Canada_Comparison_2015Not much new in Minister McCallum’s messaging but interesting the emphasis on regionalization and his response.

Above chart highlights the ongoing employment challenges for immigrants in Quebec compared to Ontario and Canada in 2015 (Quebec government statistics. It was also one of more striking findings in Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote):

Encourager les immigrants à demeurer en région, loin des grands centres comme Montréal et Toronto, est un important défi, reconnaît le ministre McCallum. Il note que de nombreux immigrants qui s’étaient d’abord installés en région finissent par s’établir dans les grands centres après quelques années seulement, une situation qu’il attribue aux difficultés à trouver du travail. «Oui, les logements sont abordables [en région]. Oui, les gens sont accueillants. Mais est-ce qu’il y a de l’emploi? Des services linguistiques?»

Intégration plus longue

Constatant que les immigrés affichent de plus hauts taux de chômage que les personnes nées au Canada, particulièrement au Québec, John McCallum croit que le pays intègre moins bien les immigrants que par le passé. «Le taux de chômage est plus élevé pour les immigrants que pour les Canadiens. Ça veut dire qu’on ne fait pas aussi bien aujourd’hui que dans le passé afin d’intégrer ces nouveaux immigrants», dit le ministre. Il ajoute que les immigrés trouvant du travail mettent des années à voir leurs revenus se rapprocher de ceux des personnes nées au Canada.

Source: Immigration: «Il faut faire les choses plus rapidement» | Pierre-André Normandin | Politique canadienne

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Ottawa allows seasonal exemption to temporary foreign worker rules

2016/03/18 Leave a comment

Not surprising, given the regional politics:

The Liberal government has quietly approved changes aimed at helping Atlantic Canadian seafood processors that will allow them to bring in unlimited numbers of low-skilled temporary foreign workers to fill seasonal jobs this year.

Ottawa approved the foreign-worker exemption in response to lobbying from Atlantic seafood processors and Liberal MPs, who warned that recent restrictions to the temporary foreign worker program were hampering business. New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet recently said the labour shortage in his province is so bad that some lobster processing plants have had to throw lobsters in the trash.

The Liberals – who swept all 32 ridings in Atlantic Canada in last year’s federal election – are justifying the exemption as a short-term measure to buy time until a full review of the foreign worker program can be conducted later this year.

Other industry groups – such as Restaurants Canada – are questioning why exemptions are being allowed for some sectors and not others, and why they were never told of the change.

The House of Commons finance committee recently heard from a wide range of industry associations, including the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, that requested a loosening of restrictions to the program.

The temporary exemption comes as Finance Minister Bill Morneau prepares to deliver a budget on Tuesday that will outline the federal government’s response to rising unemployment caused by the decline in Canada’s energy sector in Western Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador, which has long been a source of work for thousands of Atlantic Canadians.

Source: Ottawa allows seasonal exemption to temporary foreign worker rules – The Globe and Mail

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Augmentation du nombre d’immigrants : la CAQ soupçonne des intérêts électoralistes

2016/03/17 Leave a comment

Quebec immigration debates:

La Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) soupçonne les libéraux de vouloir augmenter le nombre d’immigrants par intérêt électoral.

La députée caquiste Nathalie Roy a souligné que les immigrants votent généralement pour le Parti libéral du Québec.

La CAQ a demandé mardi au premier ministre Philippe Couillard de soumettre toute hausse du nombre d’immigrants à l’approbation des deux tiers de la Chambre.

Le chef caquiste François Legault a rappelé que le gouvernement de M. Couillard a été élu avec 41 % des suffrages au dernier scrutin.

Selon M. Legault, une question comme la hausse du nombre d’immigrants devrait être soumise à un appui plus large que seulement ceux du PLQ.

Lors d’un point de presse qui a suivi la période des questions, Mme Roy, porte-parole en matière d’immigration, a donné plus de précisions.

« Force est de constater que les immigrants votent la plupart du temps, souvent, pour le Parti libéral, beaucoup, a-t-elle dit. Parce qu’ils sont accueillis ici lorsque c’est le Parti libéral qui est au pouvoir et c’est comme une tradition, probablement. »

Même si Mme Roy reconnaît que les autres partis peuvent également tenter d’obtenir l’appui d’immigrants, la députée a constaté l’intérêt des libéraux.

«On peut se poser la question»

« Il pourrait fortement y avoir des intérêts électoralistes derrière le fait de vouloir augmenter le nombre d’immigrants au Québec de façon aussi importante, a-t-elle dit. On peut se poser la question, mais je dois rester polie. »

Selon Mme Roy, M. Couillard a décidé de faire passer le nombre d’immigrants accueillis chaque année au Québec de 50 000 à 60 000, même si les plans gouvernementaux doivent être révisés au printemps.

« Il a décidé que ce serait 60 000 avant même qu’il y ait les consultations sur le plan pluriannuel », a-t-elle dit.

Source: Augmentation du nombre d’immigrants : la CAQ soupçonne des intérêts électoralistes | Alexandre Robillard | Politique québécoise

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Ottawa looks to ease international students’ path to permanent residency

2016/03/16 Leave a comment

Appears that the government has heard these entreaties, as well as believing in the policy merits of encouraging a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship for students, with changes to Express Entry expected:

The Liberal government is moving to make it easier for international students to become permanent residents once they have graduated from Canadian postsecondary institutions.

Immigration Minister John McCallum said he intends to launch federal-provincial talks to reform the current Express Entry program, a computerized system that serves as a matchmaking service between employers and foreign skilled workers. Thousands of international students have been rejected for permanent residency because the program favours prospective skilled workers from abroad.

“We must do more to attract students to this country as permanent residents,” Mr. McCallum told reporters after meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts Monday. “International students have been shortchanged by the Express Entry system. They are the cream of the crop in terms of potential future Canadians and so I certainly would like to work with my provincial and territorial colleagues to improve that.”

Mr. McCallum said international students are ideal immigrants and should be recruited by Canada.

“I believe international students are among the most fertile source of new immigrants for Canada. By definition, they are educated. They speak English or French,” said the minister.

“They know something about the country, so they should be first on our list of people who we court to come to Canada,” he minister.

International students have been uncertain about whether they will be able to stay in Canada after they finish their studies since the former Conservative government introduced the Express Entry system on Jan. 1, 2015. Prior to that, they had a clear path to permanent residency.

To be able to apply for permanent residence under Express Entry, however, graduates have to reach a certain number of points, with levels changing from month to month. Those with the highest points in any given month are more likely to be successful.

Evan Green, a Toronto immigration lawyer who has helped international students apply for permanent residence, was cautious about the promise to adjust how applications are processed.

The government is projecting fewer economic applicants overall, and so international students may face more competition for the available spots.

“The target for 2015 was 181,300 in the economic class and this year it’s 160,600,” he said.

Still, a few simple adjustments could make it easier for international students to settle in Canada, he said. Giving graduates specific points for education and work experience in this country would be a start. That’s how the prior system worked.

“You had people who paid for their own education, had Canadian work experience, they’re pretty good immigrants,” he said. “They could adjust it so that work experience on your postgrad work permit could be worth more.”

Making the system easier to navigate is crucial to Canada’s economy and its universities, said Paul Davidson, the president of Universities Canada. International students contribute in excess of $10-billion in GDP to the economy, more than wheat and more than softwood lumber, he said.

“It’s a global competition,” he said. “Being able to offer a commitment that students can stay here after they graduate is part of the pitch Canadian universities make to attract top talent.”

Source: Ottawa looks to ease international students’ path to permanent residency – The Globe and Mail

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Canadians support visa-free travel between some [largely white] countries: poll

2016/03/15 Leave a comment

Apart from the practicalities (more complicated than portrayed by the advocates), this is a throwback to imperial preferences and has a xenophobic tinge given that all four are majority white countries.

Echoes of ‘old-stock’ vs new stock, and hard to see how it would be a winner given the underlying message:

A majority of Canadians support the right – along with Australians, New Zealanders and Britons – of residents to have unrestricted travel between the countries without the need for visas, a new poll has found.

According to the poll commissioned by the Britain-based Royal Commonwealth Society, 75 per cent of Canadians believe that residents of the four Commonwealth countries should have an arrangement similar to the European Union, which allows citizens to travel freely to live and work in member countries. The poll, conducted by Nanos Research, is part of the group’s ongoing efforts to promote greater mobility between the countries.

The results showed 82 per cent of New Zealanders, 70 per cent of Australians and 58 per cent of Britons also support the idea. The survey of 1,000 Canadians was conducted in late January.

Tim Hewish, the society’s policy director, said the group plans to lobby politicians in Ottawa in the coming months. “It’s the responsibility of elected governments to respond to these types of responses from their citizens,” he said.

Currently, Canadians require a visa for all travel to New Zealand and Australia. Canadians visiting Britain for work or study, or on trips longer than six months, also require a visa.

The four countries were selected out of the 53 Commonwealth nations because they share similar socioeconomic characteristics, Mr. Hewish said. “It is intended that this could apply to other Commonwealth countries with comparable economic characteristics over time,” his statement said.

But Emily Gilbert, a University of Toronto geography professor who studies citizenship and migration, voiced concern about which countries were included – and excluded – from the proposal, and pointed to anti-immigration sentiments being played out around the world.

“Given the context of us really being really antagonistic against people coming from places who we think are not like us, I find it highly problematic that this proposal – ‘These are people like us, they’re okay’ – that this proposal is getting this kind of groundswell of enthusiasm,” she said.

She added that arriving at such an arrangement between the four countries would be far from simple. Even if their leaders agreed to it, the implementation would require the involvement of countless departments and ministries at multiples levels of government. “I’m skeptical that it could actually be put into place,” she said.

Mr. Hewish said specific details, such as whether residents would have the right to vote, could be worked out between the individual countries. Mr. Hewish attributed the slightly lower level of support in Britain, at 58 per cent, to recent debate over a possible British exit from the EU. In fact, the survey found that only 46 per cent of respondents in Britain expressed support for continued free movement within the EU.

The poll, released Sunday, is just the latest in an ongoing effort by groups lobbying for such an arrangement. Last year, the Commonwealth Exchange – the policy arm of the RCS – released a report floating the idea. That received support from London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has spoken publicly about creating a “bilateral free labour mobility zone” between Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

Around the same time, an online petition created by a Vancouver-based group called the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization received more than 100,000 signatures.

“The U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand share the same head of state, the same common-law legal system, the same Western culture, the same respect for democracy and even the same language,” the petition states. “It is therefore unreasonable for each to not share the same economic, political and cultural benefits that a free-movement policy would bring.”

Source: Canadians support visa-free travel between some countries: poll – The Globe and Mail

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Immigrants help drive Metro Vancouver’s housing market: study

2016/03/15 Leave a comment

Dan Hiebert and David Ley continue their insightful work in assessing ethnic concentration and impacts on housing:

Immigrants have a major impact on fast-rising house prices in Metro Vancouver and Toronto, according to the author of a new study.

In a unique research project, UBC geographer Daniel Hiebert discovered that ethnic Chinese and South Asians become homeowners at a much higher rate than other immigrants and the general population.

“There is definitely an impact on the housing market,” said Hiebert, who believes a key factor behind the phenomenon is many new immigrants arrive in Canada’s major cities with a great deal of money.

The veteran researcher’s exclusive cross-tabulation of housing and immigration data, including between 2006 and 2011, found on average that 53 per cent of immigrants to Metro Vancouver during those five years became homeowners in that period.

They bought roughly 100,000 homes in Metro Vancouver during the five years, ranging from suburban condos to ritzy mansions.

“New Chinese immigrants were at the top of all this. Kind of incredibly, their rate of home ownership was 73 per cent,” said Hiebert.

Roughly 52 per cent of newly arrived South Asians, the second largest immigrant group in Metro Vancouver, bought homes in that same five-year period.

Rounding out the five largest recent newcomer groups during that period, the rate of home buying among South Koreans was 51 per cent and among white and Filipino immigrants it was each about 44 per cent.

Hiebert, who has published major studies on immigration, housing and ethnic enclaves, believes immigrants are seriously affecting housing affordability at both the high and low ends of the market.

Prices of Metro Vancouver’s expensive properties, those in the $4-million-plus range, are being dramatically affected by immigrants, Hiebert said. But, at the low end, so are costs for new Syrian refugee families, who need government subsidies to afford a basic place to live.

While some of the new immigrants who end up classified as homeowners might be among the relatively few who arrive on a family reunification program and join an existing household, Hiebert believes most would be buying homes by transferring large financial resources into Canada.

“I think it would be a pretty big stretch for someone to arrive tabula rasa (without a lot of money) in a housing market like Vancouver and within five years be able to purchase a home in this place. That would be really difficult to expect.”

Hiebert’s findings support the conclusions of UBC’s David Ley, holder of the Canada Research Chair in geography and author of Millionaire Migrants. The Oxford-educated professor has found an “unusually decisive” correlation between high immigration to Metro Vancouver and high home prices.

The overall rate of home ownership among all residents in Metro Vancouver is almost 70 per cent — out of a total 1.5 million households, according to Hiebert’s work.

Based solely on visible-minority status, and disregarding immigrant status, ethnic “Chinese have the highest ratio of home ownership, followed by South Asians,” Hiebert said.

“The percentage of home ownership among Chinese is 81 per cent,” accounting for 290,000 Metro households, Hiebert said. “And South Asians are second at 75 per cent,” or roughly 160,000 households.

“Between these two largest groups, you’ve got much of the immigrant picture, which is why the immigrant picture looks better than the other picture (for non-immigrants),” said Hiebert.

Among smaller ethnic groups in Metro Vancouver, 62 per cent of Filipinos own homes, as do 59 per cent of West Asians (mostly Iranians).

Hiebert, who frequently advises the federal government, said his research did not include studying the rate of home ownership among non-immigrants, long-standing residents of Canada, or whites.

Nor does it delve into the specific effects of foreign ownership on Metro Vancouver housing costs.

And even though Hiebert said the high rate of home ownership among immigrants has a “definite” impact on housing, he said more careful analysis of sales is needed to measure it precisely.

He speculated the roughly 100,000 homes bought quickly by immigrants who arrived in Metro Vancouver between 2006 and 2011 would represent a “reasonable fraction” of all houses sold in that period, adding that proportion could be calculated after learning how many homes sell each year in the region.

Craig Munn, spokesman for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said in an interview the average number of houses sold between 2006 and 2011 across the region of Metro Vancouver (which contains 21 municipalities from West Vancouver to Langley) was about 44,000 annually.

That adds up 220,000 home sales over that five-year period, which means the proportion bought by immigrants who arrived in that time alone would be about 45 per cent.

Hiebert, basing his work on novel cross-tabulations of the National Household Survey, found “stark differences” in new immigrants’ home ownership rates between Canada’s three largest cities.

While the home ownership rate in Metro Vancouver was 53 per cent and in Toronto 50 per cent among those who arrived between 2006 and 2011, it was just 23 per cent in Montreal.

“The much lower rate of home ownership in Montreal is ironic, because of course housing can be had for (roughly) 40 per cent of the price of Toronto or Vancouver,” he said.

“When housing prices escalate quickly, people feel they have to dive into home ownership. But there’s no sense of urgency in Montreal.”

Source: Immigrants help drive Metro Vancouver’s housing market: study

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