With a new tax on foreign homebuyers in Vancouver expected to slow purchase activity, there is a greater risk that the city’s lofty real estate prices would be vulnerable to a potential jump in local unemployment, Fitch Ratings said on Monday.

Earlier this month, Vancouver implemented a 15 per cent tax on foreign home buyers to try to address a lack of affordability for residents.

The new tax will likely be effective in tamping down buyer activity, Fitch analysts wrote, but with signs that the market may have begun to cool even before the tax, that leaves Vancouver home prices more exposed...

According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales declined for a third consecutive month in July 2016. 

Highlights:

• National home sales fell 1.3% from June to July.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 2.9% below July 2015.
• The number of newly listed homes rose 1.2% from June to July.
• The MLS^® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 14.3% year-over-year in July.
• The national average sale price climbed 9.9% in July from one year ago; net of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Greater Vancouver, it advanced 7% year-over-year.
...

A new Vancouver-based company says it aims to lessen the headache of finding rental accommodation in the city’s hot housing market, but renters’ advocates are blasting it as more bad news for tenants.

Biddwell, which officially launched last week, allows prospective tenants to review online postings and submit a “sealed offer” on a unit, similar to a bid at a silent auction. The landlord can then review the applicant’s “renter resumé” – which can include a short biography, references and verified income – and decide whether the offered...

Three years ago, Jack Li signed to buy a modest one-bedroom condo in Richmond for about $200,000, a chance to gain a relatively cheap foothold in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.

Then he waited as his new home slowly emerged from the ground. But far more exciting than construction progress was the rapid rise in the value of his purchase as real estate prices took flight. Mr. Li, a Beijing oil and gas worker who turned to real estate when energy prices crashed, decided to buy more.

In January, he bought into another condo development in Yaletown. In July, he signed for a third, in Burnaby....

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that 9,900 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in July, down 3.4 per cent from the same month last year. Total sales dollar volume was $6.57 billion in July, up 5.4 per cent compared to the previous year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was up 9.1 per cent year-over-year, to $663,411.

“Housing demand has moderated in many regions of the province, after setting records earlier in the year,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “The less frenetic...

The trend measure of housing starts in Canada was 201,936 units in July compared to 197,847 in June, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“July’s housing starts continued to pick up pace, as construction strengthened in BC and Ontario’s multi-unit segments,” said Aled ab Iorwerth, CMHC’s Deputy Chief Economist. “This reflects continued strong demand for lower-priced homes and low inventories of completed and unsold new units....

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Metro Vancouver* homes sales resembled more typical levels in July.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales inthe region totalled 3,226 in July 2016, a decrease of 18.9 per cent from the 3,978 sales recorded in July 2015 and a decrease of 26.7 per cent compared to June 2016 when 4,400 homes sold. This is the first time since January that home sales in the region have registered below 4,000 in a month.

“After several months of record-breaking sales activity, home buyer demand returned to more historically normal levels...

The BC legislature passed legislation last night that institutes the foreign buyer tax. Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver President Dan Morrison issued the following statement on this development:

"Hundreds of British Columbians head into the BC Day long weekend facing stress and uncertainty concerning the largest financial transaction of their lives because of the provincial government's abrupt intervention into the Metro Vancouver housing market this week.

“The Premier’s decision not to exempt transactions where home sellers have an accepted contract in place, with a non-Canadian...

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...

Canada's banking regulator said on Tuesday it will require the country's banks to test how they would withstand a 50 percent drop in property prices in Vancouver and a 40 percent decline in Toronto.

The move, which builds on an existing requirement that banks test their resilience to a 30 percent decline in home prices across all regions, is the latest in a series of measures by Canadian authorities to counter a risk posed by soaring house prices in the two Canadian cities.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said earlier this month it was tightening oversight of mortgage...

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The B.C. government plans to tax foreigners who buy residential property in the Vancouver area – an announcement that follows months of pressure to address foreign speculation that many have blamed for the region’s superheated housing market.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the 15 per cent tax, which takes effect Aug. 2, will apply to the sale of all residential properties within Metro Vancouver, excluding treaty lands in the Tsawwassen First Nation. The tax will apply to buyers who are not Canadian citizens or permenant residents, as well as corporations that are either not registered...

“While national sales activity remains strong, there are still significant differences in housing market trends across Canada,” said CREA President Cliff Iverson. “While home sales activity and price growth are running strong in B.C. and Ontario, they remain subdued in other markets where homebuyers are cautious and uncertain about the outlook for their local economy,” he added. “All real estate is local, and REALTORS^® remain your best source for information about sales and listings where you live or might like to in the future.”

“June sales extended...

The Bank of Canada announced on July 13^th, 2016 that it was keeping its trend-setting target overnight lending rate at 0.5 per cent.

The announcement repeated many of the themes from its announcements and Monetary Policy Reports (MPRs) published in late 2015 and early 2016. Chief among these themes is how the Bank is still counting on the continuation of low interest rates and stronger U.S. economic growth to buoy Canadian exporters amid ongoing weakness in Canadian business investment.

However, the Bank again reduced its annual forecast for Canadian economic growth in light “a weaker outlook...

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a record 12,906 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in June, up 14.3 per cent from the same month last year. Total sales dollar volume was $8.97 billion in June, up 25.7 per cent compared to the previous year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was up 10 per cent year-over-year, to $694,925.

“Robust housing demand in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan drove sales growth in June,” said Brendon Ogmundson, BCREA Economist. “At the...

The trend measure of housing starts in Canada was 197,918 units in June compared to 190,302 in May, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“Overall, June saw housing starts pick up pace in Canada, bolstered by apartment construction in Ontario – especially new condo construction in Toronto’s downtown core,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “However, elsewhere in the country, construction activity slowed as apartment construction...

Home buyers continue to compete for homes listed for sale across the Metro Vancouver housing market.

Residential property sales in the region totalled 4,400 in June 2016, an increase of 0.6 per cent from the 4,375 sales recorded in June 2015 and a decrease of 7.7 per cent compared to May 2016 when 4,769 homes sold.

Last month’s sales were 28.1 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month and rank as the highest selling June on record.

"While we're starting to see more properties coming onto the market in recent months, the imbalance between supply and demand...

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has put the province’s real-estate industry under government oversight, declaring the industry’s self-regulating body has failed to protect the public from cut-throat and illegal practices and has lost the public’s confidence in its ability to police itself.

The announcement comes a day after an independent advisory panel issued a report that included 28 recommendations for how the Real Estate Council of British Columbia should beef up its oversight ability to adjust to a market fuelled by speculation.

“The point of regulation is to protect people,...