MIKE SMYTH: Horgan slammed for refusing to ban foreign homebuyers
Premier John Horgan likes to remind people about his Irish roots, something he did again this week when asked if B.C. will ban foreign real-estate purchases.
“I’m a child of an immigrant — I don’t think that’s the way we should proceed,” Horgan said.
“British Columbia is the gateway to Canada, and I don’t believe we should be curbing people from coming here.”
To Green party leader Andrew Weaver, the comment betrayed a fundamental ignorance of the housing affordability crisis in B.C.
“I was shocked by that,” Weaver told me Wednesday.
“The problem is not immigrants coming here to live and work,” Weaver said. “The problem is the people who don’t come to live here. It’s about speculators outside of Canada using our real-estate market to park offshore capital, driving up prices for those who do live here.”
Weaver has called on the Horgan government to ban foreign real-estate purchases as one way to address a distorted market where Metro Vancouver prices jumped 65 per cent in just three years. The ban should not apply to legal immigrants or refugees living in Canada, he said.
New Zealand recently banned foreign purchases and other jurisdictions have brought in similar measures to stem the inflow of offshore money.
“People everywhere are realizing how small jurisdictions can become engulfed by foreign capital and that’s why governments are taking steps to protect the people who live and work there,” Weaver said.
Weaver thinks official estimates of foreign property purchases in B.C. are misleading because offshore buyers can use loopholes to keep their locations a secret.
He points to the recent Fu v. Zhu case in B.C. Supreme Court, in which two wealthy Chinese families fought over ownership of three multimillion-dollar Vancouver homes they bought together.
The court heard evidence that family members tried to deceive Canadian authorities about where they lived.
Then there was the case of Richmond immigration consultant Xun Wang, who pleaded guilty to creating fake documents to trick authorities into thinking his clients lived in B.C. when they actually lived in China.
“We need to take bold steps,” Weaver said.
“We need to enforce existing laws. We need to clamp down on foreign capital coming in. We need to close the loopholes that allow people to buy property through trusts, shell companies, nominees and partnerships.”
Weaver said he’s been swamped with messages of support since he called for the foreign purchase ban.
“Some of the most passionate concerns I’ve heard are from people within the Asian community,” he said.
“They came here as immigrants, worked hard, paid their taxes, and made enough to retire. Now they see their own children priced out of the housing market.”
Weaver said he intends to outline a series of measures next week to deal with the issue. It appears his governing partners in the NDP will not adopt them.