Canada to ban Nigerians and other foreigners from owning homes

Over the past two years, prices of home in Canada have jumped more than 50%, with a monthly record increase reached in February. This is as buyers acted ahead of rate increases by the Bank of Canada, taking the benchmark price of a home to C$869,300 ($693,000).

An earlier measure to curb this rising cost, had seen Justin Trudeau’s party during the last election campaign in 2021 suggest a ban on blind bidding for properties.  Blind bidding is the prevailing practice of keeping offers secret when auctioning a home.

Critics say this practice quickens price increases, with properties occasionally selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the asking price.

However, some others argue that the practice encourages potential buyers to make the best offer they can.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has now withdrawn its support for the practice, and on Wednesday it launched a pilot initiative to display real-time offers on properties posted on its own listing website, Realtor.ca.

Reacting to the two-year ban on foreigners buying homes in Canada, Simeon Papailias, founder of REC Canada, a real estate firm, said “I don’t think prices are going to fall as a result, though I do think it takes away at least some of the competition in what is the most competitive market in Canadian housing history.”

“I don’t think a two-year band-aid is going to have an impact on what’s a fundamental lack of supply.”

Furthermore, the Canadian government is planning new measures to help new home buyers, which would include the introduction of a legislation that allows Canadians under the age of 40 to save as much as C$40,000 ($31,900) for a home down payment within a new tax-exempt policy, a source said.