British Columbia Imposes Citizenship Disclosure for Home Buyers – Bloomberg Business

2016/02/18 Leave a comment

Long overdue. The lack of data hampers knowing what, if any, policy response is needed:

British Columbia will require home buyers to disclose their citizenship to help the government monitor foreign ownership and address a housing boom that has made Vancouver one of the least affordable cities in the world.

Proposed changes to the property transfer tax will enable the government to collect information on property buyers, including their citizenship status and whether they hold the property as bare trustees. Bare trusts are typically used for real-estate assets and pass taxes and benefits directly to the beneficiary.

“We think it’s time to start collecting again,” Finance Minister Michael de Jong said in a briefing in Victoria. “At least we’ll be in a position to aggregate the information and provide data for the public discussion.”

The measures are meant to provide more transparency in the country’s hottest real-estate market. Prices in Vancouver are the highest in Canada, topping C$1.3 million ($940 million) for a detached home in January, a 28 percent rise over the prior year, according to that city’s real estate board, with sales up 32 percent in that period.

More transparency is not meant to slow investment from abroad, de Jong said. The province will continue to spend taxpayer money to promote the province as an investment destination.

Source: British Columbia Imposes Citizenship Disclosure for Home Buyers – Bloomberg Business

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Counting foreigners in the housing market is one thing. Then?

2015/08/18 1 Comment

More on the PM’s stated intent to conduct research into the effect of foreign buyers on Canadian real estate prices and information on what the UK and Australia do to restrict foreign ownership:

But if the data does indeed confirm that foreigners are swamping the country’s major urban centres, the question about what Harper would do about it remains up in the air. Harper didn’t elaborate on what specific regulations, if any, he would implement to tame offshore buyers.  However a Conservative Party background document on the issue points to countries like the U.K. and Australia, which have adopted certain policies, without saying which ones are being considered here.

So what have other countries been doing? Earlier this year, Britain implemented a capital gains tax for non-residents selling property in the country, however it was a tax that already applied to British sellers. As of April foreign buyers must pay up to 28 per cent of the profits they earn when selling their homes, though it’s not yet clear whether the move has dampened enthusiasm for London properties among rich foreigners.

And what about down under? “Australia provides a fine example and some guidance,” says Wozny. “[Their regulations] are all fair and logical.” To combat rising house prices in Australia, often attributed to rich Chinese investors driving up the market, rules were put in place restricting foreigners from buying homes that were previously owned or occupied for longer than a year if they plan to use them as a rental property or vacation home. The move effectively limits foreign buyers to newly built properties. As for foreigners living in Australia temporarily—such as those buying a home for their child entering Australia for university—they are restricted to purchasing one property in the country as a primary residence, and must sell it when they leave.

Australia has other nuanced regulations for how quickly foreigners must build on vacant land, and others that limit foreign buyers from purchasing investment properties. Those who flout the rules in Australia can face stiff fines and even up to three years in prison. And yet, despite all the restrictions, home prices in Australia jumped by about 10 per cent over the last year.

So there are genuine questions as to whether targeting foreigners in Canada will make homes more affordable for Canadians. Some argue it may even do more harm than good. “Are you going to introduce some additional charges with non-residency ownership?” asks Richard Bell, a Vancouver-based real estate lawyer with Bell Alliance. “And what’s the impact on the market if you were to do that?”

Counting foreigners in the housing market is one thing. Then?.

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Conservative pledge to collect data on foreign homebuyers gets mixed reception

2015/08/15 Leave a comment

While the Government is playing on fears (an election theme), there is considerable merit in having better data either to confirm, or as suggested in this article, debunk this myth (see earlier Millionaire migration to Canada didn’t fall after investor scheme’s axing – it rose, new data reveals):

In his speech Wednesday, Harper referred to estimates that “as many as 15 per cent of the condos in Vancouver sit empty” “No dreams are living there,” he said, vowing to “take action to ensure any foreign, non-resident investment supports the availability and affordability of homes for Canadians.”

The estimates he cited are from a 2013 analysis by BTAworks based on 2011 census data and apply only to the downtown core. For Metro Vancouver, the numbers are closer to six per cent, according to that study, and five per cent, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association. The idea that large swaths of Vancouver are sitting empty, robbing Canadian families of the dream of home ownership, is largely a myth, Bell said.

“The Saudi prince buying a $19 million penthouse — that’s going to sit empty,” he said. “What is sitting empty, I believe, is the high end, where people are saying, ‘Vancouver is a beautiful city. We want to go there for one month out of the year.’

“It’s sort of like Canadians buying in Palm Springs or Florida.”

Foreign ownership affects prices at the top of the market and trickles down to the average homebuyer only in the sense that “people that used to buy at the top end of the market are now having to move into the mid-range, so everyone is pushed down a little bit,” he said.

“The baby boomers who are downsizing are able to pay more than the people that are moving up.”

He said the anxiety over foreign ownership has less to do with xenophobia than skyrocketing house prices, which are affected by a lot more than a buyer’s citizenship.

“The baby boomers’ kids are now starting to buy properties — generational wealth transfer is taking place; low interest rates; urbanization — young kids don’t want to live in small towns anymore. So, the discussion that would be really interesting is to try and look at all the factors in play,” Bell said.

Now if only this evidence-based approach could lead to the restoration of the Census.

Conservative pledge to collect data on foreign homebuyers gets mixed reception – Business – CBC News.

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Vancouver real estate titles reveal city’s racist history

2014/09/05 Leave a comment

A reminder of our not so distant past, and how it has been overtaken by reality (Vancouver, along with Toronto, are almost 50 percent visible minority):

Early immigrants to B.C. faced not only the hardship of settling into a new home, but also seemingly racist policies — Chinese and Indo-Canadians did not have the right to own property and only got the right to vote in 1947.

In Vancouver, West Vancouver and Victoria, owners tried to use restrictive land covenants to keep minorities from buying land — and many of those covenants remain in place to this day.

Realtor Wayne Hammil recently spotted a covenant in a land title dating back to 1928 when he was putting a Vancouver home up for sale.

“One of the clauses in the restrictive covenant makes reference to not selling to certain ethnic minorities in the world,” said Hammil.

The covenant prevents the sale or rent of the land to people who are of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and African descent or any other Asiatic race.

“[Theres a ] total irony because most of the buyers are from mainland China,” said Hammil. “If this was enforced, it would preclude them from purchasing the property.”

Ron Usher, general counsel for the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia, says Sec. 222 of the Land Title Act makes the discriminating covenants void.

“I would imagine though there are probably hundreds if not several thousand lots covered by this,” said Usher. “Where they find these, they’ve already put on the title the Except for Clause X notation.”

If this note has not yet been made on the title, Usher says its simple to have title updated through a phone call to the province’s Land Title and Survey Authority.

The race-based covenants are still embarrassing because of what they stand for, he says, but getting them completely removed from the land title can be an expensive process as they almost always have other provisions that are valid restrictions on the use of the property.

Vancouver real estate titles reveal city’s racist history – British Columbia – CBC News.

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