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B.C. business leaders are joining the chorus of voices calling for more granular residential real estate data.

The provincial government stated in its last budget that it would track the citizenship and residency of owners who are not Canadians in future transactions. But the B.C. Chamber of Commerce is now calling for this kind of information to be made available about existing and past owners.

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“We’re saying that’s great to look at the information going forward, but we also want to look at the last 20 years in the housing market and to recreate that data to get a full picture of what the change is in ownership between permanent residents, foreign investors and Canadian citizens,” said Dan Baxter, the Chamber’s director of policy development, government and stakeholder relations.

Baxter said this fuller picture is needed in order to consider which “policy levers” can help to balance the need for foreign investment against the need to tackle housing affordability.