B.C. developers: Allow foreign investment to curb slowdown

Key Takeaways:

• B.C. developers and construction groups are urging Ottawa and Victoria to ease foreign homebuyer restrictions, saying the policies are deepening the industry slowdown and threatening housing supply and jobs.
• Housing starts in B.C. have fallen sharply, with March 2025 starts down 50% year-over-year, and multi-family starts down 22% in B.C. and 29% in Ontario.
• The coalition wants Canada to adopt an Australian-style model, where foreign buyers are barred from existing homes but allowed to purchase newly built units to help projects meet financing and pre-sale thresholds.

The Whole Story:

A coalition of developers, builders and industry groups is calling on federal and British Columbia officials to relax foreign homebuyer restrictions, warning the policies are worsening an industry slowdown and jeopardizing housing supply and jobs.

In an open letter dated July 29, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney, federal housing minister Gregor Robertson and B.C. Premier David Eby, more than two dozen signatories — including Beedie, Polygon, Westbank, Intracorp and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) — argue the national ban on foreign homebuyers and B.C.’s provincial tax are stalling new projects at a time when the province faces a deepening housing shortage.

The group says B.C.’s real estate and construction sectors together contributed $93 billion to provincial GDP in 2023 — roughly 29% of the total economy — but housing starts are plummeting. The letter cites a 50% drop in March housing starts year-over-year, from 4,867 in March 2024 to 2,379 in March 2025, with multi-family starts down 22% in B.C. and 29% in Ontario.

While non-residents own roughly 1% of Canadian homes, foreign investors account for about 10% of newly built condos nationwide, the group says, often providing the pre-sale commitments developers need to secure financing and launch construction. Without that demand, the letter argues, fewer projects will meet pre-sale thresholds, delaying or cancelling new builds and ultimately reducing housing supply.

The coalition is urging Ottawa and Victoria to follow Australia’s example, where foreign ownership of existing homes is restricted but investment in newly constructed homes and pre-sales remains permitted. They argue this approach would protect local buyers in the resale market while sustaining construction activity.

“We are hopeful your government returns foreign home ownership and investment into British Columbia’s leading economic sector, 16 months ahead of schedule,” the letter says.

The federal foreign buyer ban, introduced in 2023 and extended in 2024, is currently set to remain in place until the start of 2027.

Chrystia Freeland, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, said in 2024 that foreign money “has been coming into Canada to buy up residential real estate, increasing housing affordability concerns in cities across the country,” and that extending the ban is part of “using all possible tools to make housing more affordable.”