Chinese Investors Driving Up Metro Housing Prices

[whatnext]

There, its out there in black and white, in a reputable source like the Vancouver Sun. I'm not sure why some feel the need to deny this, or paint even mentioning it as something a tolerant society shouldn't discuss.

When real estate entrepreneur Cam Good hosted a group of predominantly mainland Chinese investors this Wednesday at a White Rock condo showing, he was tapping into a market that's surging across much of Metro Vancouver.

Good, president of The Key, a Vancouver-based sales and marketing firm that's focusing on a new wave of Chinese buyers, figures he's sold more than 500 homes to mainland Chinese investors and immigrants in January and February in Vancouver and Toronto....But it's not just condos that are attracting Chinese buyers, with single-family homes and large lots topping the list....

Across the Lower Mainland, especially Richmond and Vancouver's west side, mainland Chinese buyers and immigrants are becoming a major part of the market, in some cases competing with each other through multiple offers.

But the phenomenon is starting to spread to other areas including Burnaby, West Vancouver, White Rock and beyond....

...Richmond MacDonald Realty realtor David Lindsay said: "January and February has been almost exclusively mainland Chinese buyers of big lots, with a house of little value on it. And we're getting multiple offers."

He said, for example, that a typical lot in the Seafair area, which sold for $800,000 in October, is now selling in the $1.2-million range. "I sold one last Sunday and we had four offers. The winning bid was $1.03 million. It was on the market for $968,000." Lindsay believes there's speculation is going on, because some buyers are getting an accepted contract with a clause that allows them to assign the contract to a third party before the sale is completed. "One buyer didn't even set foot on the property..."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business...#ixzz1FBM6E7Q7