Foreign buyers all but disappeared from Metro Vancouver real estate market: data

The latest property transfer data from the B.C. Ministry of Finance, released at the end of July, indicates that foreign buyers have all but disappeared from the Lower Mainland.

The numbers show that just one per cent of all real estate transactions in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District during the first six months of this year involved foreign nationals, down from three per cent in the same period a year ago.

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Burnaby, Coquitlam and Richmond were the top destinations for foreigners buying property in the first half of 2018, with three per cent of transactions in Burnaby and two per cent in each of the other two municipalities involving foreign nationals. The sole municipality to see an increase in the proportion of foreign nationals making purchases was the City of North Vancouver, where foreign buyers were involved in one per cent of deals in the first six months of 2018.

Those concerned about foreign nationals purchasing agricultural properties will be reassured to know that foreign buyers of Lower Mainland rural properties have fallen from 14 per cent of the total in the first six months of 2017 to zilch in the first half of this year.