CMB MAGAZINE cmba-achc.ca fall 2016 | 21
blamegame
But overseas buyers are merely one factor
among many, and while they may have an
impact on markets like Richmond or West
Vancouver, they account for less than two per
cent in markets elsewhere in the region.
So, how did this narrative gain such cachet?
IT WASN'T ALWAYS THIS WAY. While
Vancouver's real estate market has always
responded to waves of migration with booms
and busts that are more pronounced than in
their eastern Canadian counterparts, the boom
in single family home sales following the 1982
recession was a particularly welcome one.
Beset by a moribund economy, the trickle of
new Canadians from Hong Kong and Taiwan
(most of them entrepreneurs or professionals)
brought much-needed stimulus to the local
economy. roughout the 1980s and '90s, the
B.C. government was able to track foreign
buyers by those who had checked a box
on their land-title application form stating
they were neither a citizen nor a permanent
resident. But even that register carried little
weight, since many a "foreign" buyer would
eventually become a resident.
By the mid-2000s, that dynamic had started
to change, as an increasing share of Canada's
stream of wealth-based immigrants came from
Mainland China. e steady procession of new
