According to a recent article published in Vancouver’s Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao,
According to a recent article published in Vancouver’s Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao, the main group that is feeding this year’s 70-per-cent jump in sales of homes over $4-million in Greater Vancouver (according to the latest Sotheby’s Realty report) are second-generation Chinese, or immigrants who have already established themselves here.
Since the federal investor program that allowed immigration with an $800,000-plus investment ended in 2010, the new buying class is market-savvy, with a taste for contemporary design. And they – say industry experts – are the main reason the luxury-home market in Vancouver is recovering much faster than the overall housing market.
According to Greg Lowe, the organizer of the tour and a real-estate marketer at Luxuryhomes.com, the key to attracting Asian buyers lies in the design of the building. Based on the traditional courtyard house model, Chinese families prefer to have several bedrooms all on one level, rather than on different levels, and each bedroom with its own bathroom.
“It’s the antithesis of the traditional boomer design,” he says, as the bus leaves Vancouver’s West Side and heads to the North Shore, “with the master bedroom on the top floor, the living room on the main and the children’s bedrooms in the basement.” He mentions some friends who are having trouble downsizing from just such a house in West Vancouver, a popular area for Asian buyers because of its larger lots – due to its design.
While many newly arrived Chinese immigrants might well be able to afford luxury homes, the amount of money they can take out of the country is limited by the Chinese government. So those who have been here for at least three or four years, and increasingly their children, are the ones driving the luxury-home market revival.
Mr. Lowe says Vancouver is one of five North American cities – the others being New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Miami – where Chinese buyers are purchasing luxury homes.
But when it comes to buying luxury homes, the devil is in the details.
“I could never sell this house to a Chinese buyer,” says Sharon Lum, a second-generation Chinese Canadian (who grew up speaking Cantonese, but perfected her Mandarin as a realtor), as we walk through the next house on our itinerary. At first glance, the Mathers Avenue “mansion” with neo-classical pillars and grand entranceway seems more “Russian oligarch” than “new Asian buyer.”