Meanwhile, one-third of condos in BC were purchased by investors, fuelling debates on housing supply and affordability
Real estate investors purchased approximately 25% of homes in British Columbia between 2018 and 2020, according to a recent Statistics Canada analysis.
The share was even higher in the condominium market, where one-third of sales involved investor-buyers. The report also identified Kelowna, Vancouver, and Victoria as the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with the highest investor activity across British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Statistics Canada grouped investors into four categories: business investors, non-residents of Canada, out-of-province investors, and in-province investors. Of these, in-province investors (BC residents who own at least two residential properties, one of which is an investment) dominated, accounting for 16.6% of total home sales during the study period.
Non-resident investors represented 3.2% of purchases, while business investors accounted for 2.8%, and out-of-province investors made up 2.2%.
Immigrants were disproportionately represented among in-province investors in urban centres. In Vancouver, for example, immigrants comprised 67% of investor-buyers despite making up just under 42% of the city’s population. Similar trends were noted in Kelowna and Victoria.
The StatCan analysis linked this trend to previous findings that immigrant families are more likely to invest in real estate compared to other asset classes. Interestingly, immigrant investor-buyers and non-investor buyers reported the same median income of $60,000, significantly lower than the $90,000 median income of Canadian-born investor-buyers.
Since the pandemic, shifts in economic conditions and government policies have influenced real estate investment trends in BC. Rising interest rates, higher property taxes, and restrictions on short-term rentals have contributed to cooling investor activity.
“I’ve always said the instruction manual for Greater Vancouver has been to invest in real estate more than in productive activity,” Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, told CTV News. “That’s changed, of course, in the last couple years… it’ll be interesting to see how active investors are today.”
Davidoff said the link between investors and rising housing prices may not be as direct as often assumed.
“I would say investors are probably more active when they think prices are rising,” he said. “So the causality, in a way, would go from ‘expensive markets where there are high growth prospects are likely to see investors’ more so than ‘the presence of investors is what causes a run-up in prices.’”
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For policymakers, ensuring affordable rents remains the most critical challenge.
“It’s nice if people can afford to buy a home, it’s necessary that people can afford to rent a home,” Davidoff added. “So I think the most important thing is to get housing built, whether it’s a condo that an owner occupies, a condo that an investor rents to somebody, or a purpose-built rental that an institution rents to somebody. They’re all fine in my book.”
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