In August, Vancouver enacted a 15 percent tax on foreign home buyers as well as planning to impose tax and penalties for owners of vacant homes by 2017. These policies aim to curb what had been a boundless level of foreign buyer activity in Canada over the past twenty years.
With this shift, Seattle has seen a rise in foreign investment as these new policies in Vancouver drive potential home buyers from China and Hong Kong south.
Lili Shang, a broker with Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty and Founder of the Asia Desk division, has seen a rise in clients from China who are looking for investment properties in Seattle rather than Vancouver, a changes which she attributes to the new taxes; “The tax was the trigger of this new wave of investment now coming to Seattle,” Shang said in a Bloomberg article, “Why pay more for the same thing?”.
According to Bloomberg, this increased interest in the Seattle real estate market has led to rising sales and rising values. Dean Jones, chief executive officer of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty, estimates that half of the homes his firm sells in the Seattle suburbs are going to Chinese buyers and his firm has set up an Asia Services Desk Group as many of these sales require the use of interpreters, international banks, and multiple escrow deposits.
Home house prices are also on the rise; there has already been a 50 percent jump in the past five years, according to Bloomberg. Although this rise is attributed to many dynamic factors, such as the tech boom, it can be surmised that foreign investment is driving the cost of homes in Seattle upward.
To read more on this story, please visit: Bloomberg | “Vancouver Tax Housing Pushes Chinese to Seattle Homes”