Investors make a fifth of home purchases in Halifax, where real estate prices continue to soar
CBC
New research from the Bank of Canada shows investors account for about one-fifth of home purchases in Halifax.
It provides insight into a housing market that has recently seen prices soar, making it impenetrable for some would-be homeowners.
Using databases on financial loans, researchers with the country's central bank tallied the share of mortgaged home purchases made by first-time homebuyers, repeat homebuyers and investors. All-cash home purchases are not part of the accounting.
The bank has released similar information in the past, but never with a breakdown that included details specific to Nova Scotia. A report released this month includes figures for 11 of the country's largest cities, including Halifax.
The report shows that investors accounted for about 19 per cent of mortgaged home purchases in Halifax in the second quarter of 2021. That's just shy of the Canadian average for the same period, which was 21.6 per cent.
The report provides context, although it does not directly answer the question of how much investors are responsible for driving up real estate prices.
In Halifax, the average home sale was 26 per cent higher in 2021 than the year before, and 14 per cent higher in 2020 than the year before that, according to statistics reported by the Nova Scotia Real Estate Association.
Most major Canadian cities have seen investor activity grow in recent years, but Halifax has seen one of the biggest jumps.
Since 2014, investor purchases rose more than four per cent in Halifax, second only to Ottawa's five per cent growth.
The report doesn't break down the other two homebuyer categories by city, but it does show national trends.
Generally, first-time homebuyers account for the lion's share of home purchases, but that number has been trending down since at least 2015 and more drastically so since about 2020. Repeat home buyers come in second, with their share growing since at least 2015.
The report's authors suggest that the rise in investor activity in Canada overall, "has contributed to strong demand and may reflect a belief that house prices will continue to rise in value — sometimes referred to as extrapolative expectations."
They also note that investor demand may be more sensitive to shifts in market sentiment, thereby exacerbating boom-bust cycles.
"Investors could thus be a source of instability for the financial system and the economy more broadly."
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