FOREIGN BUYERS
ONTARIO AND B.C. MAY NOT WANT THEM, BUT MANITOBA REALTORS SAY THEY’RE MORE THAN HAPPY TO ROLL OUT THE WELCOME MAT.
If Toronto and Vancouver have a problem with international property buyers, Manitoba realtors have an answer for them.
Chris Pennycook, t he president of the Manitoba Real Estate Association, said his province is ready to accept more immigrants into its borders and is happy to also take on investors with money coming from abroad.
“We are not shying away and we are encouraging ( investors),” said Pennycook, who represents 2,200 realtors in Manitoba. “We are a diverse community and we are encouraging trade and foreign buyers.”
Winnipeg is playing host this week to a five-day international property specialist course for realtors put on by the National Association of Realtors — the largest international association of realtors. “Right now only about two realtors ( in Manitoba) have the designation,” said Pennycook, who will have his at the end of the week if he passes.
His response to foreign buyers comes as the issue continues to drive discussion in Canada’s two most expensive cities for housing. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, whose government imposed a 15- percent non- resident speculation tax in April on buyers in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, said Tuesday data supplied to him doesn’t show the percentage of foreign buyers has declined but it’s too early to talk about the impact of the tax. The Toronto Real Estate Board said this month sales were off 20.3 per cent in May from a year ago while average prices declined 6.2 per cent from April.
British Columbia was the first to impose a foreign tax in August, 2016, but while its 15- per- cent additional land transfer tax on foreign home buyers in Greater Vancouver initially slowed the market May statistics indicate prices and sales are both recovering.
Pennycook, who has been in the industry for 33 years, says Manitoba doesn’t have the same percentage of foreign buyers as Vancouver and Toronto but he’s seeing an influx of money from abroad.
“They look at prices and we are a great alternative,” said Pennycook. The average price of a home sold in Winnipeg was $ 302,983 in April which compares with $1,056,136 in Greater Vancouver and $920,791 in Toronto for the same month. “Our association feels very strongly about the north- south trading barriers and as realtors we find the more trade there is the better the housing market will be and more growth Manitoba will have.”
Manitoba spent a year trying to make the course happen in its jurisdiction, the first time it has been held outside the U. S. Delegates from Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Texas, Virginia, B. C, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and P. E. I. attended.
The conference is focused on expanding trade and real estate activity between Canada and the U.S. — something that drives the market more in Manitoba — but a full day was spent on European and Asian markets.
“We’ve got high l evel president and chief executives here ( for the course) which is designed to allow realtors to be recognized throughout the world as having expertise in different currencies, laws, different cultures and an ability to deal with different ethnicities. It’s a very in- depth course to understand all the different cultures through the world,” said Pennycook.