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Metro Vancouver’s young adults are increasingly competing with international students, foreign workers and financially supportive offshore parents to buy a home or find a place to rent.

A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report released this week shows international students and temporary workers under the age of 25 are responsible for 10 per cent of the mortgages issued to that age group in Toronto and Vancouver.

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Andrew Scott, a senior market analyst for CMHC, said in his report that foreign students and offshore workers in Canada “account for more than their share in urban housing markets.” Many young arrivals are buying high-priced condominiums and houses, according to data provided by Canada’s five largest banks, which Scott said signifies many “may be receiving parental support to purchase homes.”

Perhaps more importantly, since the number of non-permanent residents has more than doubled in a decade to 140,000 in Metro Vancouver alone, the Crown corporation’s report for the first time suggests a key reason for the difficulty young adults have finding a place to rent in a metropolis where the vacancy rate is stubbornly stuck below one per cent.