Immigrant investment has impact on Vancouver housing market: researchers
VANCOUVER — Researchers in British Columbia say they’ve found empirical evidence linking immigration to real estate prices for the first time.
A study spearheaded by business professor Andrey Pavlov of Simon Fraser University looked at a now-defunct federal program designed to entice investor immigrants to Canada and the impact its suspension had on the housing market in neighbourhoods popular with newcomers.
Communities favoured by Chinese immigrants in Vancouver saw a drop in housing prices over about a year relative to the overall housing market after the termination of the Canadian Immigrant Investment Program in 2014, Pavlov said.
“This is as good evidence as we can get on the impact of foreign ownership on the real estate market. And the conclusion is: yes, there is an impact,” Pavlov said in an interview.