This article could have been written replacing the words Canada and Vancouver by resp. Australia and Sydney. It is exactly the same thing happening in Aus. Australia introduced that significant investor visa program which the facts show that it is about 90% of PRC people coming in with their clean or not so clean money. Investment, in the context of this visa scheme, is mostly about property speculation. Property prices in Sydney are very high and locals and migrants who work here cannot afford. The government introduced negative gearing to help to inflate that property bubble.
As in Canada, Australia agreed to co operate with the Chinese gov to help track those Chinese who run away with all their dirty money, which almost always end up in property.
I am renting now and have been inspecting units for a year as I wanted to buy. At any inspection I went, other people walking in were mostly PRC. not australian asians. you can tell from their strong accent. Whenever I made an offer, above the asking price, there was a chinese to outbid by like 10% the price of the unit. You sometimes hear sick conversations between the potential buyer and the agent like once that young PRC girl who asked the agent : "I already have 2 units here and am planning to buy another one; if I buy this one can I still get the first home owner grant ?" (I really heard that I'm not joking).
Few times, at the end of an inspection, when I would ask questions to the agent, he would answer me : "I have a call scheduled tonight with the owner in china, I will ask him".
if they really want to track the dirty money pouring in Australia, it's not that hard. You see houses that sell for $3 million whereas they sold for $1.5 million only exactly one year earlier.
In Sydney inner west, I can see every day luxury cars driven by young chinese kids. Seriously the guy does not even have pubic hair yet and he's driving a custom bentley. There are parts of the city that do not necessarily look luxurious : no luxury goods shops around, average condition roads, very few shops and restaurants, though you feel like you are in monaco when you look at the cars around.
I don't know what can be done about it. Wish for a serious financial crash in china, or wish for the politics to really mean what they say, or wish for a lot more crime (which would encourage those people to look elsewhere to spend their money), or find ways to move to smaller towns where all that dirty money has not been yet and property is still available ?
I don't know what can be done about it. Wish for a serious financial crash in china, or wish for the politics to really mean what they say, or wish for a lot more crime (which would encourage those people to look elsewhere to spend their money), or find ways to move to smaller towns where all that dirty money has not been yet and property is still available ?