Chinese Buyers Fuel Vancouver Home Boom

With many Chinese buyers alongside Vancouver's already sky rocket home prices, we have ranked as the world's most unaffordable real estate markets! 

Looking for a small, detached, bungalow or single story home, maybe even a fixer uperr? All these properties can command prcices well over $1 Million Canadian Dollars.  

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the average house price in Canada in April was C$372,544, up 8% from last year. In Vancouver, it was more than twice that, at C$815,252, up 21% from a year ago.

An Illinois-based consultant Wendell Cox, estimates that median real-estate prices in Vancouver are 9.5 times median household income. Only Hong Kong and Sydney are less affordable by that measure. (New York comes in at 5.1.)

The rise in prices have effected the high end calibar properties in the market, which many Chinese have purchased.  Other properties that are popular are the condo's, single family homes as well as fixer uppers that buyers usually tear down and build on.  There is speculation as to the buying, Chinese buyers are looking for a long term investment and somewhere else to park their money other than in Mainland China.

Sales of homes worth more than C$2 million soared by 118% in Vancouver in the first four months of this year, real-estate brokerage RE/MAX reported in May. The average price in the high-end segment now tops C$3 million.

Chinese buyers dominate the higher end of the market, which increases demand and prices across the city.  They have also dirven up the prices for more modest houses.  Some Vancouver residents are selling their newly richly valued homes and purchasing more expensive ones, while new buyers are still trying to find a way to buy before prices rise any higher. 

Vancouver real estate agents say Chinese buyers dominate the high end of the market, fanning demand and prices across the city. The strong demand for high-end homes has helped drive up prices for more modest houses. Some Vancouverites are selling their now richly valued homes and buying more-expensive ones, while new buyers are scrambling to buy before prices rise further, agents say.

Even though the US home prices continue their decline, Canadian home prices have climbed steadily upward since the end of the the financial crisis.  Having the low interest rates have made borrowing easier and global commodities have fired up the rich economy in Canada.  

The city always has been more expensive than most in Canada. Its location, sandwiched between the sea and the mountains, constrains the supply of available land. Vancouver also has long been near the top of global surveys in terms of quality of life. The 2010 Winter Olympics helped showcase the city to the world.

Many Chinese have migrated to Canada since the 1880's.  About 20% of the city is of ethnic Chinese origin now. That makes it a natural market for Chinese looking for overseas investments, amid Beijing's recent attempts to cool its own property market.