More shocking money laundering allegations as a pair of reports were made public painting a picture of a staggering amount of dirty money being pumped in to the lower mainland real estate market.
The Peter German phase two report and the report from an expert panel determined last year alone there was $7.4-billion of dirty money laundered in B.C, $47-billion across Canada.
In 2018 5.3 billion of that dirty money was spent on real estate.
The German report also found the infusion of illicit money led to a frenzy of buying that raised the assessed values of homes throughout much of Metro Vancouver.
Attorney General Dave Eby says he was unprepared for the scope of the findings.
“These findings are stark evidence of the consequences of the absence of oversight, the weakness of data collection, and the total indifference from governments, until now, to this malignant cancer on our economy and our society.”
Eby says the evidence is clear with Peter German’s report finding a shocking number of people with no apparent income going on real estate shopping sprees.
“Students and homemakers going on real estate buying sprees. A student who had a registered address at a rented office outside of B.C. who bought 15 properties in the same condo building for almost $30 million. A homemaker who bought for than a dozen downtown row-houses over three years for over $4.1 million. And another homemaker who over three years bought five luxury homes worth $21 million.”
The expert panel report found the dirty cash was behind a 5% increase in the housing market overall.
The report makes 29 recommendations, which the province is taking a close look at.
Finance minister Carole James says the province will take those recommendations seriously.
“We need to put a work plan together. As I think has been pointed out there are a lot of recommendations and we need to prioritize them. That is the discussion we will be having. We will take a look at what we are able to move on. I can certainly say that all the recommendations look critical.”
Both James and Eby noted cooperation and resources from the federal government is vital and while the relationship with Ottawa is good on this file Eby pointed out any changes at FinTrac, the federal financial reporting agency, have been painfully slow.
You can read the report from the expert panel HERE
You can read the phase two Peter German report HERE
