Vancouver foreign ownership research prompts cries of racism in hot housing market

Research thatsuggests foreign buyersfrom Chinaare fuellingtherising price of housing in Vancouverissparking criesof racism.

Andy Yan, an urban planning researcher and adjunct professor at UBC, never expected to be accused of racism when he crunched the numbers on foreign ownershipand house prices on Vancouver's west side.

"It's not about the messenger, it's about the message," said Yan.

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Yan looked at 172 recent property sales over a six-month period in three of Vancouver's most expensive neighbourhoods to buy a home: West Point Grey, Dunbar and the University Endowment Lands.

He found 66 per cent of owners had non-anglicized Chinese names, which he said implies they're new arrivals.

He also found that18 per centof all homes in those neighbourhoodswere purchasedwithout a mortgage, meaning the buyers were rich enough to buy them outright.

But Yan says the take-away from the study is that most of them, 82 per cent, didneed a mortgage.

"I think it's surprising because it counters what people think, of [foreigners]showing up with suitcases of money being placed directly placed into Vancouver real estate," said Yan.

'This can't be about race'

Urban planning consultant Bob Ransfordsaid he'sworriedthatanalysing buyers by ethnicity and implying they're the cause of high housing costsis racist.

"The danger is intolerance, racism, singling out certain groups of people saying they're to blame for this," said Ransford.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said more needed to be done to address housing affordabilitythan pitting people against each other.

"Thiscan't be about race, it can't be about dividing people," said Robertson. "It needs to get to the core issue about addressing affordability and making sure it's fair."

Robertson and other elected officials have long demanded better data from the province, which doesn't keep information about foreign ownership.

"We're told by the provincialgovernmentit's a very complicated issue, and we don't have the data, and there's not much the governmentcan do about these issues,'said MLA David Eby, who helped Yan examine the files.

"All of that, I think, is untrue."