3 in 10 residential property buyers in N.S. were investors in 2018-2020: StatsCan

Statistics Canada says investors represented three in 10 residential property buyers in Nova Scotia between 2018 and 2020 — the highest volume of such buyers among provinces where data is available.

The data, published by the federal statistics agency on Dec. 3, tracks the number of investment buyers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia over three years.

Nova Scotia had the highest volume of investor buyers of residential property in that time, with an average of 28.2 per cent.

In neighbouring New Brunswick, investor buyers averaged 20.3 per cent in the same period, and in B.C. they averaged 24.8 per cent.

Statistics Canada defines real estate investors as buyers of at least one residential property that is not used as their primary residence.

Tourist areas

In rural areas, investors represented 37 per cent of buyers in Nova Scotia and 34 per cent in B.C. The report attributed this to buyers being drawn to tourist areas, including cottage areas and ski resorts. Nova Scotia's South Shore and Inverness — a community in Cape Breton — attracted buyers, as did Whistler and other Interior ski resort areas in B.C.

Meanwhile, the highest rate of investor buyers in urban areas was in B.C., with several purchasing residential properties in Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria and Abbotsford-Mission.

Immigrants were also overrepresented among investors in large urban areas in 2019, with the highest discrepancies between Canadian-born residents and immigrants in Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission. Immigrants in these areas represented 67 and 60.8 per cent of buyers, respectively, despite making up just 41.8 and 26.1 per cent of the population.

In Halifax, immigrants made up 11.2 per cent of the city's population but accounted for 21.4 per cent of buyers.