The Design District 41.The surge in house prices in Vancouver has nothing to do with Asian black money. A three-year public investigation into money laundering in British Columbia, Canada has found.Please Visit: The Design District 41 to Get Your VVIP Registration Today!
Black money is not the cause of the housing affordability crisis in the area. The investigation was prompted in part by public speculation that criminals had pushed up house prices in Vancouver.
The investigation, led by British Columbia High Law Justice Austin Cullen (Austin Cullen), was widely expected by local politicians, media and housing advocates. In recent years, these people have blamed criminal funds, especially from Asia, for Canada’s most expensive real estate market. But Karen’s detailed report, more than 1800 pages long, refutes these assumptions based on the testimony of 188 witnesses and more than 1000 pieces of evidence.
The report makes it clear: “money laundering is not the reason why housing is unaffordable.”
“We have every reason to believe that fundamentals such as supply and demand, population growth and interest rates are more important drivers of prices,” Karen said in the report. Measures to combat money-laundering should not be seen as solutions to improve housing affordability. ”
The price of a benchmark home in Vancouver has roughly tripled in the past 20 years, while the number of so-called millionaire immigrants from Asia has soared, attracted by Canada’s immigration policy aimed at attracting the rich. The story of Asian students claiming to have no income but owning a multimillion-dollar mansion has unnerved locals.
Public anger erupted as the price of a typical single-family house rose to more than 20 times the median household income.
In early 2019, Carole James, then finance minister, cited controversial estimates commissioned by the provincial government that black money was responsible for house prices rising by about 5 per cent the previous year. Another study investigated land ownership in British Columbia for signs of money laundering and classified more than 2000 properties as high-risk properties. In May 2019, under pressure to provide answers to an angry public, British Columbia Prime Minister John Hogan blamed the rise in house prices on “unverified” fraud and appointed Karen to lead the public investigation.
