The full weight of the Foreign Buyer Tax is appearing now in our marketplace. But it is not the people who were intended to pay the tax who are actually paying it. That’s right, it is the sellers of land value older homes (mostly retirees) and builders with expensive new homes that are absorbing the new tax. Foreign buyers are simply deducting the tax from what they are willing to purchase.
The result has been a drop in prices for land and new homes as well. Not the entry-level price range which is generally condominiums, now selling for more per square foot than an equivalent house that has the land as well as the house….Entry level purchasers pay the most per square foot for their new condo, and the upper-end pay less. You tell me was the tax effective??
In my opinion, the only true benefactors of this tax are the government who collect it and the new immigrants who now get a discount of 15% and a slower market that they can now pay less in. Losers are those wishing to cash out with the most to retire on, and the builders who speculated on the market continuing; not to mention all the side industries that typically flourish during an active real estate cycle.
