Experts doubt foreign buyer ban extension will help affordability
Over the weekend, Ottawa quietly extended its foreign homebuyer ban until 2027.
But some experts question whether it will make any difference to affordability in the Lower Mainland.
“The analogy I like to draw is a lemon that has had all the juice squeezed out of it by the foreign buyer taxes here, and by the empty homes and speculation taxes, so no real room for this to have an effect on affordability,” economist Tom Davidoff with the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business said Monday.
In 2021, the year before the foreign buyer ban was announced, roughly 1.1 per cent of sales in B.C. involved a non-Canadian buyer.
"Notably, in 2023, prices basically rose steadily from the start of the year, so as soon as the ban was in effect, we had nothing but rising prices,” said Brendon Ogmundson, chief economist for the BC Real Estate Association. “So, as a sort of salve for affordability, it certainly is not a very effective policy."
And given the other measures in place locally, Premier David Eby offered a muted response to the ban’s extension.
“I don’t expect the extension of the federal foreign buyer ban to have a significant impact on the housing market in British Columbia as a result, but it may have an impact in other provinces where they don’t have these protections,” Eby said Monday.
While B.C. brought in a foreign buyer tax in 2016, the federal government only decided to implement a ban in 2022 – after local measures had already changed buyer behaviour.
“Canada, federally, is a little bit late with this foreign buyer ban, and a two-year extension just seems like a little bit of a fluff – maybe there’s an election coming up or something like that,” remarked David Hutchinson, a Vancouver realtor.
But others feel some restrictions around real estate are appropriate – and needed – even beyond this ban.
“There is going to be a needed national discussion about how you work with people who have second, third and fourth homes, who keep them empty,” said Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University.
One area of focus for some researchers is what to do with people who clearly have significant wealth, but don’t contribute much tax.
“I think there are sensible demand-side measures,” Davidoff said. “There’s lots of homes that are occupied by Canadians really not connected to the local labour market, so not foreign buyers, but homeowners who are very affluent, but not through the work force.
“A lot of these people who own very fancy homes and are obviously very rich, but pay very little tax in Canada.”
Along with other researchers, Davidoff has calculated if there were a requirement on the owners of the top 10 per cent of homes by value to pay at least one per cent of property value in taxes to Canada and the province, that could generate $2 billion in each of Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Board orders deportation for trucker in horrific Humboldt Broncos crash
The truck driver who caused the horrific bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has been ordered to be deported.
How to keep insects out of your house, according to an entomologist and other experts
Now that temperatures have warmed up even more this spring, you may be anxious at the thought of bugs invading your home or you may already be battling the pests. Here are expert tips on how to keep them away.
Community mourns victims of fatal boat crash near Kingston, Ont.
The three people killed in last weekend's tragic collision between a speedboat and a fishing boat north of Kingston are being remembered Friday.
A woman took her dog to a shelter to be euthanized. A year later, the dog is up for adoption again
Exhausted and short on options after consulting two veterinary clinics, Kristie Pereira made the gut-wrenching decision last year to take her desperately ill puppy to a Maryland shelter to be euthanized.
Group tied to Islamic State plotted fatal Ontario restaurant shooting: Crown
A gunman who is accused of killing a young Ontario man and shooting four of his family members at their small Mississauga restaurant in 2021 was allegedly part of a trio who had pledged allegiance to the listed terrorist group Islamic State, a Crown attorney said in an opening statement in the Brampton murder trial this week.
'Quiet vacationing': Surveys show workers don't use all of their vacation days, play hooky
'Quiet vacationing' is the latest new term to describe the rough edges of office culture, and survey data shows it's widespread among North American workers.
Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated director of 'Super Size Me,' dies at 53
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar-nominee who made food and American diets his life's work, famously eating only at McDonald's for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Avian flu: Catch up on spread, risks, and guidance from health experts
After another case of H5N1 avian flu linked to dairy cows was confirmed in a second dairy farmer in the United States, some Canadian experts say the federal government needs to expand surveillance of the virus north of the border.