Study reveals impact of immigrants on Toronto, Vancouver home prices

Foreign investors have a large impact on home prices in Toronto and Vancouver according to an academic study. The research, by Daniel Hiebert of the University of British Columbia, discovered that Chinese immigrants in particular become home owners quicker than the general population.

Hiebert believes that many of the immigrants to Canada’s two hottest housing markets arrive with large sums of money, enabling them to quickly enter the real estate market.

In the five years covered by the study, 2006 to 2011, immigrants bought 100,000 homes in Greater Vancouver. The figures show that 53 per cent of new immigrants to the area bought a home within five years; for Chinese immigrants it was 72 per cent.

Hiebert’s data shows a 70 per cent overall rate of homeownership in Vancouver.

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