South Forest Hill Residences floor plans.House prices have risen by 30% a month. According to a rough estimate by the National Bank of Canada, buyers from China accounted for about 1/3 of Vancouver’s hot housing market in 2015.Please Visit: South Forest Hill Residences floor plans to Get Your VVIP Registration Today!
Chinese investors spent C $12.7 billion (US $9.6 billion) on real estate in the western Canadian city in 2015, accounting for 33 per cent of its total sales of C $38.5 billion, according to a report released by financial analyst Peter Routledge on Wednesday. In Toronto, they bought about 14%, accounting for about C $9 billion of the total C $63 billion of transactions. Routledge concluded from a survey of 77 high-end buyers in the Financial Times and data from the National Association of Real Estate.
According to the local real estate board, the average price of a detached house in Vancouver surged 30 per cent to C $1.8 million in February from a year earlier, while sales rose 37 per cent. Prices are higher in some residential areas, such as the West side of Vancouver, where the average price of a detached house is C $3 million.
In terms of high-end property prices, Hong Kong and London are not as fast as Vancouver. House prices in the Canadian west coast city rose 25 per cent last year, the highest in the world, according to the annual wealth report of real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
Through an abandoned and rotten house (which is actually listed for $7.2 million), let’s explain the money laundering process in which Chinese “investors” are involved.
Chinese investors have bypassed the annual foreign exchange cap of $50,000 for Chinese citizens and transferred millions of dollars abroad.
Chinese investors make all-cash transactions, usually through third-party intermediaries to keep their identities secret or to pay in person, such as in real estate transactions in Vancouver, New York, London or San Francisco.
Real estate is becoming the new “Swiss bank account”, and real estate investment provides a good choice for Chinese investors to transfer money from China without revealing their identity.
Hundreds of houses in Vancouver have become part of the new normal Swiss bank account: “Chinese investors are hiding their wealth abroad. Chinese investors are driving up Canadian house prices. ”
Local people in Vancouver are aware of this phenomenon. As mentioned by Canada’s National Post in its latest article, “the Dark side of the Vancouver Real Estate Market,” unlicensed real estate agent Amanda says Vancouver is evolving from a residential city into a bank safe. But I have to live among these empty houses. I am a resident here, not an investor.
Although the article in the National Post is not about Vancouver real estate as a destination for hot money outflows from China, most people now know what’s going on. This article focuses on unlicensed real estate brokers who serve Chinese investors. Chinese investors buy houses at prices that local buyers simply cannot afford. In addition, these so-called “retailers” are unlicensed. It was they who created the world’s biggest real estate bubble.
This is a story about Amanda, a former unlicensed real estate agent, in which Amanda reveals the darkness of Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market. Amanda resigned for so-called moral reasons. We believe there will be 10 people who want to fill the vacancy left by Amanda.
The real estate market in Vancouver is good for Amanda. She is not a licensed real estate agent, but buying and selling houses has become her full-time job.
Eight years ago, Amanda became an unlicensed real estate agent.
Amanda contacted the owner of the house and offered the owner an all-cash deal. Amanda charges a 10 per cent service charge on each transaction. This is seen as the lowest job in real estate investment, but it is a low-risk and well-paid job. Amanda is doing well. She now owns two houses in Vancouver and is developing real estate in the United States.
Unlicensed real estate agents are an illegal but highly expansionary business in Vancouver. The business is growing very fast in the Greater Vancouver area because law enforcement is oblivious to it.
The business is similar to another “resale contract” model being investigated by real estate regulators in British Columbia, where Vancouver is located. Although the model is legal, it operates behind the scenes and conducts real estate transactions only in writing to increase brokers’ commissions and investors’ liquidity.
However, unlicensed real estate agents are not in line with the regulations at all. Amanda estimates that there are hundreds of people working on the business in the Greater Vancouver area, not including licensed brokers who secretly engage in such transactions.