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Federal Budget Commits to Figuring out Foreign Home Ownership

March 26th, 2016  |  Home

The Federal government released its 2016 budget last week and in it they outlined their commitment to keeping housing affordable by allocating $500,000 to Statistics Canada to get a clearer picture of foreign property ownership in the country.

Foreign property ownership has become a major concern in the real estate discussion thanks to popular opinion that foreigners have driven up prices in Vancouver and the GTA by buying up lots of property and inflating prices. In Vancouver the average cost of a detached single family home is creeping up to the $2 million mark. In Toronto it’s at $1.2 million.

CBC reported that the money will be used to help StatsCan develop methods of getting the data they need on property owner citizenship. Currently, foreign real estate investment is generally accepted as having at least some impact on the market’s unstoppable price growth. By getting a more concrete picture the government will hopefully be able to make the right decisions on making home prices reasonable again.