Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

In Canada, a two-year ban on foreigners buying homes has come into effect. In a statement, the federal housing Minister Ahmed Hussen said, the ban is meant to discourage buyers from looking at homes as commodities instead of a place to live and grow a family. The ban prohibits people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from buying residential properties and imposes a fine of 10,000 Canadian Dollar on those who breach it. Tthe ban aims to help ease one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world. The ban also includes non-Canadian company owners, which the regulations say will prevent them from avoiding the prohibition.

The impact of foreign ownership has been a hot topic when it comes to Canadian real estate for years, even as attention grows on the impact of domestic investors who the Bank of Canada says make up roughly one-fifth of purchases in recent years. However, recreational properties like cottages or lake houses will be exempt from the ban. It said, as of this summer, the average home price in Canada is 568,000 dollars, which is more than 11 times high comparatively the median household average income. Meanwhile, New Zealand also passed similar legislation banning foreign homebuyers in 2018 as the country grappled with its own housing affordability crisis.