VICTORIA – Foreign buyers purchased more than $1 billion in real estate in B.C. in five weeks, new government figures show.

The amount, $1.024 billion, represents 7.9 per cent of the total $12.89 billion of real estate sold in the province between June 10 and July 14.

Most of those foreign buyers — 73.3 per cent — were in Metro Vancouver, according to provincial data.

In the Metro region, foreign citizens bought $885 million in real estate out of a total $8.8 billion during the time period, representing 10 per cent of purchases.

The number of foreign purchases in the City of Vancouver was almost 11 per cent, compared to 18 per cent in Richmond, 8 per cent in Surrey and almost 18 per cent in Burnaby.

The average purchase price by foreign citizens in Metro Vancouver was $946,945 compared to $911,425 by Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

The latest data updates figures government released several weeks ago that some criticized as lowball estimates that didn’t properly track the impact of foreign buyers.

Premier Christy Clark announced a 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers Tuesday.

Rob Shaw

Vancouver Sun