British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick top the list in Canada for having the most out-of-province and non-resident investors in residential real estate on a percentage basis, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Earlier reporting by Statistics Canada showed that at least 20 per cent of residential real estate was owned by investors at the beginning of 2020 in each of the five provinces tracked. These include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.
The latest report from Statistics Canada found that established immigrants — categorized as those who came to Canada before 2010 — made up a higher share of investors than their share of the population.
In one noteworthy finding, the report said the assessed value of property held by immigrant investors tended to be higher than that of Canadian-born investors in all five provinces studied even though their incomes tended to be lower. This was at least partially explained by the fact that that immigrant investors were more likely to own a primary residence in a larger census metropolitan area, where assessment values tend to be higher than in other parts of a province.
In Ontario, the property holdings were on average $1.29 million for investors who had immigrated and $890,000 for Canadian-born investors. Meanwhile, the average individual income was $100,000 for Canadian-born investors and $80,000 for those who had immigrated.
Perhaps less surprisingly, the Statistics Canada report said residents age 55 and older represented a higher proportion of investors than their share of the provincial populations.
Statistics Canada began to dig into the details of residential real estate investment in 2020 amid concerns that while this activity provided needed rental stock, it could also be playing a role in exacerbating house price volatility and limiting housing market access for first-time homebuyers.
The latest report examined the demographic characteristics of investors to distinguish between different types of investors and help clarify their role in housing markets.
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