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I’ll let Vancouver realtor Steven Saretsky explain more.

Here’s an excerpt from an email Saretsky sent me:

The CEO of CMHC, Evan Siddall, asked Vancouverites not to blame foreigners for the affordability crunch and the swollen housing bubble. While he does have a valid argument (about who to blame), there are a few other things to point out. This is a housing bubble fuelled by cheap and easy credit, available to anyone with a pulse, including foreigners.

(The bubble) is perhaps most evident in Richmond, where house prices have soared 80% in the last 3 years, the most of any city in the Lower Mainland.

… Richmond also had the highest concentration of foreign buyers, who accounted for 25% of sales prior to the 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers….

(The CMHC’s) “study” shows only 2.2% of the condo market is owned by foreigners. But the data was collected by cold-calling property managers and asking them to be honest about their clients citizenship.

(It does not seem) like a reliable way to collect data on which to structure future housing policies.

So what is the extent of foreign ownership in condos?

Well, the Brighouse area in downtown Richmond, which is now dubbed “Ghost City,” has the highest concentration of foreign buyers.

It’s chalk full of brand new condo towers sold to VIP speculators. This year 46% of condos sold were listed as “vacant” (which suggests many owners live outside the city and/or country).

This is much higher than Vancouver’s 27%, which forced Mayor Robertson to implement a vacancy tax.

There are no property managers for empty condos. Nobody hires a property manager to watch over tenants that don’t exist.

Siddall is right, we shouldn’t blame foreigners, we should blame wild studies and the inaction of governments to collect concrete data.

Yet another question about Siddall’s misleading speech:

If the CMHC insists there is only a trivial amount of foreign buyers of condos in Vancouver and Toronto, how does Siddall explain, now that B.C. is taxing foreign buyers, the numerous reports on the suddenly rapid rise of prices and foreign buyers in Seattle, Victoria, Toronto and other urban centres?

A business newspaper story appeared today citing how home-purchase inquiries from China have jumped in Seattle and Toronto since the Vancouver tax was announced, according to Juwai.com, China’s largest overseas property website.

Another bit of evidence: