subject: Hot Vancouver Real Estate Market Driven by Chinese Buyers [print this page] Hot Vancouver Real Estate Market Driven by Chinese Buyers
Vancouver Real Estate Market Hot as Chinese Investors Snap Up Condos, Single Family Houses.
Chinese demand for Vancouver real estate is at an all time high with many single family properties on Vancouver's west side and in Richmond selling well over asking price. Bidding wars are back, in a big way with many properties being bought sight unseen' by Chinese investors anxious to own a piece of Vancouver. The emergence of a huge class of new rich' in China as a result of their recent economic prosperity has left many people looking to Vancouver as a place to park wealth. Even many of the middle class in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai are able to afford investment real estate in other countries. Right now Vancouver is their first stop.
The trend has indicated that these offshore investors prefer Vancouver west side and Richmond, but the phenomenon is now spreading to other areas across the lower mainland including Burnaby, West Vancouver, White Rock and even into the Tri-Cities. Some new immigrants will buy a single family house on a lot and then bulldoze the house, even though the house may not be old or in need of repair. The promise to rebuild the house, which means employing all sorts of trades and creating jobs for Canadians adds considerable strength to their immigration application. It's a great strategy if you can afford it the immigrant gets a brand new house and a passport to Canada at the end of the process. Many Chinese immigrants also believe that having their children get a Canadian education is a good thing.
The demand for Vancouver real estate has many drivers, one of them ironically being a limit on property purchases in Chinese cities. Growing restrictions imposed by government have caused many Chinese residents to focus on international destinations like Vancouver. These attempts to cool an overheating market over there have served to heat things up over here. A recent report in the China daily, a state-run publication based out of Beijing stated that buyers from the Chinese mainland now represent between 40 and 50% of the current market for pre-sale projects in Vancouver.
It is expected that this offshore demand will only strengthen going forward into the Spring and Summer months. BosaProperties 34 storeySovereign tower in the Metrotown area of Burnaby sold out immediately, surpassing the single day sales record in the Burnaby market by selling $98 million worth of real estate.
