The topic of foreign ownership in Canada’s housing markets continues to gain in importance and attention. In line with its commitment to sharing insightful information as it becomes available, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released today its latest Housing Market Insights (HMI) report on this topic.

The report looks at the share of foreign ownership by the age of structure and is meant to be read in tandem with CMHC’s fall 2015 HMI report on Foreign Ownership. Findings reveal that share of foreign ownership is most prominent in new condominium apartment structures in Toronto and to a lesser extent in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). The share of foreign ownership is most prominent in the newer structures in Toronto Centre.

Report Highlights

• In the Toronto CMA, the share of foreign ownership is less than 2% for buildings completed before 1990 and 7% for newer constructions completed since 2010. This effect is even more pronounced in Toronto Centre where about 10% of the newer stock is owned by foreigners.
• In the Vancouver CMA, foreign buyers’ share rises from less than 2% for properties built before 1990 to about 6% for those completed since 2010.

At this time, no existing tool can provide a definitive measure of the level of foreign investment in Canada’s housing markets. That said, CMHC regularly engages in discussions internally, as well as with industry experts, as part of its continued efforts to develop a program of work that would better capture data on foreign buyers.