Article content

Foreign buyers may be behind “a substantial portion” of the luxury home purchases in Toronto and Vancouver, the head of Canada’s housing agency said Tuesday.

Evan Siddall, chief executive of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., told a panel at the Global Risk Institute’s annual conference that some of the studies looking into foreign buyers cannot be ignored, while reiterating his pledge to get more data on the extent of foreign investment in Canada’s housing market.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or CMHC chief says foreign buyers may be behind 'substantial portion' of luxury home sales Back to video

“The presence of foreign investment can also contribute to housing market vulnerabilities such as overvaluation. In Vancouver and Toronto, for example, it is very possible that foreign buyers account for a substantial portion of the demand for pricier, luxury single-family homes,” said Siddall, according to a speech posted on the Crown corporation’s website.

He said a lack of accurate and reliable data is making it hard to determine the level of foreign investment and added most of the information is anecdotal. “And the problem is that many foreign investors may prefer to hide their ownership,” said Siddall.