Monday 2 January 2023

Canada freezes out foreign buyers

Canada ban introduced

As previously flagged by PM Trudeau, Canada has now - with some exceptions - banned foreign purchases of residential property.

From ABC News here (or click on the image below):

Canada had been the 3rd most popular global market for Chinese investors.

We should expect to see Chinese investment in Australia begin to increase again, albeit from much lower levels than we saw 6 years ago. 

Foreign investment in Australian real estate fell dramatically after the introduction of stamp duty tax surcharges on non-resident purchases, while the relationship between Australia and China also cooled significantly during the previous government. 

However, in the first quarter of the 2023 financial year, Chinese investment had perhaps already just begun to rebound a little, up to $1 billion for the first 3 month period reported.

Source: FIRB

Hong Kong will also drop off the radar this year as a destination for international capital flows. 


Property group Juwai predicts that China's reopening will result in a surge of demand for Australian property.

This was also reported in this paywalled article in The Australian.