By Kim Mackraek and Jason Chow | The Wall Street Journal
To track the role of foreign investment in Vancouver’s housing market, urban planner Andy Yan scrutinized land-title documents, measured condominium owners’ electricity use and even peered into trash cans outside newly purchased luxury houses.
Almost a decade after Canada’s housing market escaped the real-estate meltdown experienced in many parts of the U.S., the risk of a potential housing bubble in Vancouver and in Toronto has become a central preoccupation for policy makers. Some economists say that with no end in sight to ultralow interest rates in Canada due to the impact of sagging commodities prices on the country’s resource-dependent economy, the risk is only growing.
Related: Rising Arizona costs pushing Canadians to leave/Rose Law Group Reporter
