Did Metro Vancouver just get too expensive for foreign buyers? The BC Ministry of Finance threw us a breakdown of foreign buying across the province. Surprisingly, Vancouver is no longer the top dog. In the City of Vancouver, foreign buyer sales have grinded to a halt, and are significantly below the baseline for the province.

Only 36 Foreign Sales In The City of Vancouver

The City of Vancouver saw a shockingly low number of sales to foreign buyers. Property transfer records show 36 of the 1,350 sales that happened in May were by non-resident buyers. This means 2.7% of transactions involved foreign buyers, which is now below the provincial average of 3.9%. Actually, it’s even lower than the average of Metro Vancouver, which saw 3% of transactions go to non-resident buyers.

Source: Ministry of Finance (BC).

In terms of dollar volume, the City of Vancouver saw a total of $1,519,414,625 in property change hands in May. Of that, only $38,593,493 dollars were transactions involving foreign nationals. This represents 2.5% of total volume, once again below the average for Metro Vancouver. The average price of a home bought by a non-resident works out to $1.07 million.

Foreign Buying In The City of Vancouver Over The Past Year

We’re just a few weeks shy of a full year of data, so let’s breakdown how May compares to the past year. From June 10, 2016 to the end of May 2017, The City of Vancouver saw 826 of the 13,737 property transfers include a non-resident party. This works out to 6% of all transactions.

Source: Ministry of Finance (BC).

In terms of dollar volume for the year, the City of Vancouver saw a total of $16.3 billion of real estate transferred from June 2016 to the end of May 2017. Of those sales, $1.11 billion involved non-resident buyers. This works out to roughly 6.8% of all transactions by dollar volume.

Foreign buying in the province has been tapering for quite some time, but the City of Vancouver is experiencing a bigger drop. Changes to China’s capital controls in January has led to the throttling of Mainland Chinese money. Markets across the world are noticing it, and Vancouver is no different. However, Vancouver’s numbers are falling faster than the average for the province.

One of the interesting things about this decline is Vancouver is no longer the number one place for foreign buyers in BC. A sleepy boring city has become a hotspot with almost three times the buyers. Although that’s another article for another day.

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