Canada’s Luxury Housing Prices Are the Fastest-Growing in the World

It seems like Canada’s low loonie and sky-high housing prices are making headlines every other day.

This time, Canada is receiving an international shout-out because it’s luxury property markets have become the world’s hottest and most sought after.

Foreign demand and the weak Canadian dollar have contributed to a sudden peak in luxury property sales on Canadian soil, reports the Huffington Post.

Prime property prices are currently on the rise in Canada at a rate that’s four to 14 times faster than the current average in the rest of the world, says a new report from Knight Frank, an international commercial property agency,

Knight Frank’s latest world wealth report reviewed the values of the world’s leading prime residential properties and found that prime residential markets rose by 1.8 per cent on average in 2015. The company defines “prime property” as generally being the top 5 per cent of a housing market.

Vancouver leading the rankings by some margin, with prices accelerating 25 per cent through 2015. Toronto, meanwhile, came in at 12th place, with an 8 per cent hike in prime property prices.

The implementation of new property taxes geared towards foreign buyers could be a potential solution to cool down the luxury real estate markets of both Vancouver and Toronto. Other solutions that have been brought up include the possibility of restricting foreign ownership.

It seems unlikely that the government would approve of restricting foreign ownership in Canada’s major cities, but Canadians still want some intervention.

In a recent survey conducted by Angus Reid, two-thirds of Canadian respondents said they want the government to intervene in the housing market to ease skyrocketing housing prices. 

Title photo courtesy of Clarence Debelle Real Estate.

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