London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Canada prepares to ban foreigners from buying homes to cool property market

Canada prepares to ban foreigners from buying homes to cool property market

Canada is preparing to ban foreigners from buying homes for two years to stave off inflation, as the Trudeau government seeks to fend off political backlash to soaring inflation.

Canada will ban most foreigners from buying homes for two years and provide funding to boost supply to help stem soaring property prices. That is a warning shot for new investors from China and India, two of the biggest winners of permanent residency in recent years.

The measures will be contained in the state budget to be unveiled on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, asking not to be named because the matter is private. The ban, however, will not apply to students, foreign workers or permanent residents, the person said.

The move signals that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is becoming more assertive about taming one of the world’s most expensive housing markets, and that the government is growing more concerned about the political backlash to inflation and the rising cost of housing.

“Lack of supply is the culprit. Construction of new housing units have slowed during the past two years due to the pandemic,” said Alisha Ma, founder and managing director of Halcyon Counsel, an immigration consultancy in Hong Kong. “Returning Canadians and emigration from Hong Kong” will compound the problem, she added.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in the House of Commons on April 6.


Home prices in Canada have soared more than 50 per cent over the past two years. The market saw a record monthly increase in February as buyers acted ahead of rate increases by the Bank of Canada, taking the benchmark price of a home to C$869,300 (US$692,407).

Still, foreign ownership of Canadian homes remains small at about 3.8 per cent in British Columbia, and 2.2 per cent in Ontario, according to official data. The proposed ban is unlikely to alter much of the bullish fundamental or kill the market, according to Dexter Realty in Vancouver.

“Most areas of British Columbia have a 20 per cent tax on foreign buyers already, which practically eliminates” them from the market, managing director Kevin Skipworth said by phone. “Likely not much to change here.”

Canada took in 341,180 permanent residents in 2019 in its open-door immigration policy, the most since 1913, according to government statistics, before the number plunged to 184,606 in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and cross-border travel restrictions.

Mainland Chinese accounted for 30,246 in 2019 and 16,535 in 2020 of them. Citizens from India took up 85,593 in 2019 and 42,876 in 2020. The government targets to issue between 431,000 and 451,000 annually from 2022 to 2024.

The Canadian government has committed to offering temporary residence for qualified Hongkongers in response to China’s imposition of a national security law in June 2020. This could affect a small pool of buyers from Hong Kong, said Keelan Chapman.

“In the last couple of years, I would say roughly around 70 per cent of our buyers are either Canadian passport holders or have plans of immigrating there,” said Chapman, Hong Kong-based director and founder of Canadian Real Estate Investment Centre. The number of Hongkongers emigrating to Canada has been increasing, he added.

Several billion dollars in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget will be allocated to building affordable housing and to helping local governments update their systems to allow faster construction of new properties, according to Bloomberg.

During last year’s election campaign, Trudeau’s party also proposed a ban on “blind bidding” for houses, the prevailing system by which offers are kept secret when someone is auctioning a home.

The Canadian Real Estate Association, a body representing property agents, has shied away from defending the blind-bidding practice. It announced a pilot project on Wednesday to display offers in real time on properties listed on its listing website.

“Multiple-offer scenarios have become increasingly commonplace in today’s real estate environment,” Michael Bourque, the association’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Canadian property buyers and sellers seek greater confidence in the process.” The pilot will begin in select markets this summer, the association said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×