(Very) wealthy tourists who are eyeing a pied-à-terre in a Vancouver skyscraper, with a view overlooking the Pacific and the North Shore mountains, go your way! Housing in Canada is now only for… Canadians. A law that came into force on 1er January, prohibits any foreigner for the next two years from buying an apartment or a house on Canadian territory. A few exemptions are nevertheless provided for temporary workers who can justify a long-term settlement, permanent residents or even foreign students; there are also exceptions for properties located in rural areas, less in tension.
Non-Canadian residents who purchase property in violation of this prohibition will be liable to a fine of up to 10,000 dollars (approximately 7,000 euros); the federal government may also order the sale of the property by judicial means. The law is in addition to another measure directly affecting foreigners who are already owners; in 2023, an annual tax of 1% of the total value of their property will be imposed on them if they leave their residence vacant or “underused”.
Facilitating access to housing for his fellow citizens was a campaign commitment of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he was re-elected in September 2021. The shortage of available real estate, rock-bottom interest rates and the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19, which had aroused the desire for more spacious homes among teleworkers, caused real estate prices to explode in major Canadian cities. In September 2022, a parliamentary report indicated that the average national price of properties in the country had thus fallen from 551,000 dollars (381,000 euros) before the epidemic, to a peak of 839,600 dollars in February 2022.
Overheated
An “average” that does not reflect the stratospheric prices displayed for a long time in the major cities of the country, where a three-room apartment is trading above a million and a half dollars. In an attempt to calm speculation, in particular because of Asian buyers keen on “Hong Kong of the Pacific”, as Vancouver is nicknamed, British Columbia has already imposed a 20% property tax since 2016 on non-Canadians wishing to acquire a property. The new federal ban is even more sweeping, clearly banning those who are partly deemed responsible for the “overheating”, foreign investors.
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