Foreign money continues to flow into B.C. real estate

The federal foreign buyer ban has been operating since January, 2023, but foreign buying in British Columbia spiked in dollar value this year, according to new data analysis.

Using property transfer tax data provided by the B.C. government, Simon Fraser University associate professor Andy Yan showed that residential purchases categorized as “foreign involvement transactions” had a total dollar value of nearly $664-million from January to September, 2020. In that same period this year, 834 foreign involvement residential transactions added up to nearly $824-million. The dollar value of foreign residential transactions in 2023 was $744.5-million. The total number of foreign transactions, including commercial, increased from 1,018 in 2023 to 1,020 in 2024.