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“The offshore tax just put on the brakes,” said realtor Nirma Desai, who sells homes in south Surrey. “The offshore buyers became a huge portion of the market. They were the driving force.”

Some examples of key markets for offshore buyers:

• Richmond. From Aug. 1 to 15 last year, Richmond had 89 detached sales. For the same period this month, 12 homes were sold.

• West Vancouver: Last year, 59 detached homes were sold during the first half of August. This year, nine.

• Vancouver’s west side: 72 detached homes were sold in the first half of August 2015, but only 15 this year.

And realtors said they expect the second half of August to be even slower, as foreign buyers rushed into the market in late July and the first day of August to beat the introduction of the 15-per-cent tax.

It is a different story in Abbotsford, which borders Metro Vancouver but is not subject to the new tax. Forty-five detached homes were sold in Abbotsford the first half of this month, one more than the 44 sold in Vancouver and West Vancouver combined, and down only 19 per cent from the first half of August in 2015. In Squamish, an increasingly popular market that is outside the Metro Vancouver tax zone, detached home sales in August 2016 are equal to August 2015.

Meanwhile, with Metro Vancouver buyers now demanding discounts in a slowing market and offshore buyers either leaving or making lowball bids, some realtors say they are advising clients to cancel listings and come back in September, a month which usually has brisk sales.