N.S. Realtor Says Foreign Buyer Ban Makes Province ‘Unwelcoming’
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia realtors are pushing back against new rules they say will make Canada less welcoming to newcomers.
On January 1, a new federal law came into effect that temporarily bans most non-Canadians from buying a home in Canada.
According to the Canadian Mortgage And Housing Corporation, the rules will help improve housing affordability in Canada. But detractors say the law is ill-conceived and more about scoring political points.
The federal government first announced the policy as part of its budget, last spring. However, at the time it revealed very few details about exactly how it would work.
Those specific details only came on December 21, less than two weeks before the new law came into effect.
Many realtors were frustrated with the government’s eleventh-hour clarifications.
“One of the larger factors was, even though the idea of the legislation was announced back in April of 2022, it took a very long time for the details to come out,” explains Matt Dauphinee of the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors.
“It was sort of a lot for people to process all at once because we really didn’t know who it would impact and how it would impact them.”
According to the feds, the law bans most non-residents (as well as foreign-owned corporations) from buying residential property in Canada for two years. But there are exceptions.
Those exceptions include Canadian citizens and permanent residents, certain international students, workers who have consistently filed taxes in Canada over the past four years, as well as some diplomats and foreign nationals.
Certain kinds of properties are also exempt, including recreational property, vacation homes, cottages, and buildings with more than three “dwelling units.”
Housing prices across Canada spiked dramatically over the past few years. And while higher interest rates are starting to push prices down, affordability remains a major national concern.
Many people believe foreign ownership is driving prices higher. However, experts argue the effect of forgnei ownership is negligible.
Data from Statistics Canada show that non-residents only own a small percentage of homes in the country.
In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 5.6 percent of homes belonged to non-residents in 2020. In other provinces, even those most associated with foreign ownership, the percentage is even lower.
In Ontario, for example, non-residents owned 3.4 percent of homes in 2020; In British Columbia, it was 4.7 percent.
Considering those numbers, realtors like Dauphinee question how effective the federal government’s policy will be, and how much of it is just political theatre.
Dauphinee said he’s worried the new rules will make Canada generally, and the Maritimes more specifically, feel “unwelcoming” to newcomers.
“We’ve spent so much growing our workforce and trying to attract new Canadians [but] new Canadians may now find themselves unable to purchase a home,” he said.
“We’ve always been a welcoming nation. This legislation may have been prepared with good intentions, which is to provide more affordable housing to Canadians, but we could be at risk of losing workers to more welcoming nations.”
Trevor Nichols is Huddle’s editor, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].
With files from Acadia Broadcasting’s Blake Priddle.