Additional foreign buyer info released
Justin da Rosa
Mortgage Broker News
The fear following Vancouver’s 15% foreign sales tax was that those buyers would be pushed to Toronto. Has that happened?
The answer may soon be available.
Urbanation released a survey of condo foreign purchasers, which found foreign buyers account for just 5% of Toronto condo sales, compared to 52% of condo sales going to domestic investors.
“The results of this very important survey show a rather limited role of foreign buyers in the GTA new condo market and a very significant overall share of investors,” Shaun Hildebrand, senior vice president of Urbanation, said. “These estimates coincide with the percentages of new condos entering the rental market upon completion, indicating the important role investors play in the GTA housing market.”
Of course, the share of foreign investment could spike in the coming months now that many have – at least anecdotally – been pushed out of Vancouver’s market by the aforementioned foreign sales tax.
So future data will paint a clearer picture. The good news is that we now have a baseline to compare to.
Urbanation’s survey includes developers and real estate firms that represent new condo projects.
It covered all sales that have occurred year-to-date, Hildebrand told MortgageBrokerNews.ca, and includes completed projects, pre-construction, and those under construction.
The survey also pinpointed the Toronto area investors are most likely to target.
“Among projects indicating a presence of foreign buyers, shares of units sold to foreign purchasers ranged between 1% and 25%. Shares of sales to domestic investors ranged between 5% and 90%,” Urbanation said in a release. “The highest shares of sales to foreign purchasers and domestic investors were generally found within centrally-located projects in the Downtown Toronto area.”
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