By The Canadian Press

Foreign home purchases in Metro Vancouver are back to provincial average

Nov 29, 2016 | 12:30 PM

VICTORIA — About three per cent of residential real estate transactions last month in Metro Vancouver involved foreign buyers, a decline of more than 10 percentage points since the B.C. government intervened with a new tax.

The province says 140 properties worth $115 million involving foreign buyers were transferred in Metro Vancouver in October.

Provincial government figures show that rate is up from the 1.8 per cent of foreign purchases in the Vancouver area in September, the month after the 15-per-cent tax was introduced.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong says the government is scaling back the amount of money it expects to collect from the tax in this budget year based on the new figures.

The province now expects to collect $50 million from the tax, down from its previous estimate of $165 million.

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There are still pockets in Metro Vancouver where foreign purchases are higher, including Richmond where 6.7 per cent of all residential transactions were sold to foreigners.

The tax doesn’t apply in the Victoria area and it saw more foreign buyers in October at 6.3 per cent of all purchases.