The top reason foreign buyers from China want to get into the Canadian housing market is education, not investment, according to data from a popular global real estate listings website.

Figures released Tuesday by the Chinese website Juwai.com in partnership with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada found schooling was the primary motivation for potential Chinese homebuyers who viewed property listings in major Canadian cities in 2016.

It found housing needed for educational purposes was the most cited reason 46 per cent of Chinese users were looking at properties in Montreal, followed by 44 per cent in Vancouver, 41 per cent in Toronto and nine per cent in Calgary.

The second most common motivator was “own use,” which could mean the home would be used as a second or third property. Sixty-two per cent of those looking for homes in Calgary cited this was their main reason, followed by 37 per cent for Toronto, 25 per cent for Vancouver and 34 per cent for Montreal.

Investment was the top reason listed by a quarter of home seekers, with 27 per cent saying it was the main reason for their property searches in Vancouver and Toronto, 23 per cent in Montreal and 21 per cent in Calgary.

Brad Henderson, president at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, says the figures show that there have been misconceptions about why Chinese homebuyers look to Canadian real estate.

“I really think a lot of perception that people have around foreign buyers and specifically buyers from mainland China are informed by more anecdotal information and not statistics,” he said.

The data also indicated the majority of Chinese property searches were for Canadian homes priced below $655,050.

“While home buyers from mainland China have been identified as a notable segment of foreign purchases within the luxury property markets of Vancouver and Toronto, Juwai.com data dispels the assumption that Chinese interest is limited to the high-end segment,” said the report.

“Instead, it implies that conventional real estate dominates demand.”

The figures also found the implementation of a 15 per cent foreign-buyers tax last August in Vancouver had a swift impact on the interest of those searching for Canadian properties.

Juwai.com says that immediately following the announcement of the tax in July, its listing inquiries for Vancouver plummeted 81 per cent year-over-year and 78 per cent in August year-over-year when the tax came into effect.

It also saw that listing searches increased in other Canadian cities, with property inquiries soaring 1050 per cent and 420 per cent year-over-year in Calgary during August and September.

Even so, Henderson says he anticipates the number of Vancouver searches to pick up again, citing a modest increase in the number of inquiries in the last quarter of 2016 which he attributed to prospective buyers having digested the impact of the foreign-buyers tax.

“So we believe that in 2017, we’ll probably see an increased interest in properties in Vancouver.”

The data also found that Canada ranked third by users as the most popular destination for international homebuying, after the United States and Australia.

Juwai.com says the data was compiled over the course of 2016 from its more than two million monthly Chinese visitors.

-Calgary Herald

Housing starts are now on pace to hit 204,669 units in Canada, whereas January saw them hitting 200,255 units. This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

This winter has seen Canada’s national housing starts trend upward, supported mostly by increased construction of homes in Ontario. New single-detached home construction in Ontario is reaching levels not seen in the province since July 2008 — offsetting recent slowdowns in British Columbia.

Monthly highlights

• Condominium starts in the Montréal area increased considerably in February. The hike was mainly due to construction starting on some large real estate projects in the downtown Montréal-Griffintown sector. Activity on the new condominium market therefore remains strong in this zone, as these new units add to the nearly 3,000 units currently under construction.
• Sherbrooke has seen a rebound in single-detached housing starts in recent months. Lower supply on the resale market and a favourable job market have stimulated demand for new homes. In 2016, employment in Sherbrooke continued to grow, and the year ended with net gains in full-time jobs among people aged 25 – 44. These factors should support housing demand in 2017.
• In Toronto, low supply in the resale market resulted in demand spilling over into the new home market, particularly for low rise homes. Single-detached home starts were at their highest level for February in more than ten years. The total housing starts trend remained steady in February despite a drop in apartment starts.
• St. Catharines saw February 2017 housing starts reach the highest level for any February since 1991. A third of starts were townhouses and two-thirds were new singles across the region. This comes on the heels of a strong year for St. Catharines starts, where demand has been driven in large part by the relative affordability of housing compared to neighbouring markets.
• February saw total housing starts more than double in Winnipeg compared to the same period last year. New construction of multi-family units continued to drive total starts higher, with both purpose built rental and condominium units increasing year-over-year. Single-detached starts were also up by roughly 30% reflecting low inventories of completed and unsold new homes in 2016.
• Multi-family home construction more than doubled in Edmonton last month from the same period last year. This was unexpected given the near record levels of complete and unsold apartments on the market. The Edmonton apartment inventory has been high since the start of 2016.
• Housing starts in the Victoria CMA trended upwards in February. In particular, there was a surge in single-detached home starts in the West Shore municipalities. New construction has been supported by low inventories of homes for sale and strong migration to the region.

-CMHC