Surge in American buyers keeping housing market booming

While buyers from China remain the largest single block of foreigners active in Vancouver real estate, the number of Americans getting into the Vancouver market is booming, according to a published report.

To a lesser degree, buyers from Europe and the Middle East are showing more interest in Vancouver real estate, says Paul Boenisch, an agent for Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

“Culturally, we’re a melting pot here,” Boenisch said Monday. “And Vancouver has got a little more notoriety lately, it’s attracting a bigger pool of international buyers.

Reasons cited remain the same as usual — it’s safe, it’s a good place to raise a family, it’s gorgeous.

Add the strength of the American dollar and you get a Metro Vancouver market where the average price of a detached house was up 11.2 per cent from the previous year in March to $1.053 million, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

That’s up 88.5 per cent over the last decade, REBGV said in a report published last Thursday.

Asian buyers make up about 60 per cent of foreign buyers of Metro Vancouver real estate, according to a story published by the Financial Times on Friday. But buyers from the U.S. accounted for the biggest surge in the past year, the story said.

The article also said the Vancouver market is unique because record prices seem to have little impact on buyers’ enthusiasm. There is no residency or citizenship requirement to buy property in Canada.

“The market is smoking right now and I just don’t see an end in sight,” Boenisch said, adding foreign buyers are most attracted to Vancouver’s westside and West Vancouver.

“And that pushes everyone out to markets like East Van and North Vancouver.”