Investors made up 25% of B.C. homebuyers in new StatsCan analysis

Real estate investors made up approximately one-quarter of homebuyers across B.C. between 2018 and 2020, according to a new analysis from Statistics Canada.

Real estate investors made up approximately one-quarter of homebuyers across B.C. between 2018 and 2020, according to a new analysis from Statistics Canada.

The proportion was even higher among condo units, one-third of which were scooped up by investor-buyers during the same period.

While the analysis also looked at sales in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the highest rates of investor-buyers in census metropolitan areas across the three provinces were in Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria, in that order.

Tom Davidoff, an associate professor in UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said the significant level of real estate investment highlighted in the data was unsurprising, particularly in Vancouver, given the combination of low interest rates and low property tax rates that applied prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve always said the instruction manual for Greater Vancouver has been to invest in real estate more than in productive activity,” Davidoff said. “That’s changed, of course, in the last couple years… it’ll be interesting to see how active investors are today.”

The Statistics Canada analysis broke down investors into four categories: Business investors, non-residents of Canada, out-of-province investors, and in-province investors.

For the report, business investors were defined as for-profit companies or government entities, with the author noting the former made up the bulk of those purchases, “given that most government entities are considered non-profit organizations.”