Realtors joining premier on trade mission to Asia
Posted May 28, 2016 1:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If foreign home buyers are a problem in the marketplace then why is the premier bringing real estate companies on an overseas trade mission? Realtors will be joining Christy Clark in Korea, Japan and the Philippines.
Tom Davidoff with the Sauder School of Business says it runs counter to a statement that outside buyers are only a small part of the housing market.
Davidoff also finds it a little surprising that demand is not just coming from China. “Really the important driver of outside demand may not be so much cultural as our very very friendly tax situation for people who buy real estate here but don’t live in the real estate full time and don’t pay taxes here and aren’t landlords.”
Davidoff believes it is both a problem and an opportunity. “If the premier chose to [increase taxes for oversea buyers], if she both hustled international demand and was able to provide some benefit for local tax payers for that demand by asking for reasonable property tax contributions, it could be a win for everybody.”
