Metro Vancouver's hot real estate market is being largely driven by Chinese immigrants, not mainland Chinese investors, according to a survey released by a local real estate and marketing firm.
The report by MAC Marketing Solutions is the latest indication that a growing belief that offshore Asian investors are the main force behind the region's surge in sales is largely a misconception.
"Virtually all [the] sales to people of Asian descent are people integrated into our community," company president Cameron McNeill said in an interview Monday of their survey's findings. "The people we're selling to live here and have bank accounts here.
"There's a misconception that people think [mainland Chinese] are travelling here [to purchase] or are buying offsite. It's the opposite."
McNeill said that while the Vancouver market has seen a lot of investment by the Asian communities, there's confusion as to where they're from or why they're buying.
"These are buyers who are part of our community. Their children are in a school here. They work here and reside here."
McNeill said MAC accumulated raw samples of 500 buyer profiles, comprehensive data collected from each purchaser at the time contracts are written, and analyzed each for ethnicity and residency.
The profiles included 25 questions to learn more about the profile of the buyers and identify trends in contracts, mostly for presale highrise condominiums, but also lowrise condos, townhouses and detached single-family homes.
From Jan. 1 to June 1, MAC reported that of 500 buyers spread over 17 of their projects in Metro Vancouver, 330, or 66 per cent, are of Chinese descent.
The survey concluded that just three buyers, or 0.6 per cent, have their primary residences in China.
McNeill noted that foreign buyers were also from the Middle East, the U.S. and Europe.
The MAC survey follows other reports suggesting buyers are mainly Canadian citizens, immigrants or new residents in Canada -many with strong links to mainland China and many residing and working in China while their families establish roots in B.C.
Jennifer Podmore, real estate advisory leader for accounting giant Deloitte, recently told The Vancouver Sun that investors are not the main drivers of the market. "There are certainly a lot more Asian purchasers, but not Asian investors coming to purchase a condo and then leaving.
McNeill's and Podmore's comments follow a surge in investment, largely by ethnic Asian buyers with links to mainland China, that's branching out from Richmond and Vancouver's west side as buyers look to other communities.
Meanwhile, a recent Market-Share report by Colliers International concluded that Metro Vancouver real estate is now in the same category as New York, London and other major cities.
bmorton@vancouversun.com
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