To fill jobs and keep the economy going, Canada plans to welcome 411,000 immigrants from abroad in 2022.

If achieved, this will surpass the 401,000 new permanent residents received by the country in 2021.

Take note that last year’s number is the highest immigration level in Canada’s history.

Permanent residents speak English and a second language, possess a high degree of education, driven to succeed, and bring with them their life savings to their adopted country where they eventually become naturalized Canadians.

A bank economist has noted that new arrivals are assumed to purchase a home within five or six years of arrival, on average.

The more wealthy ones buy earlier, and those who do later rent and save for a down payment.

Now going back to the federal government’s target of 411,000 new permanent residents this year, a report by a Vancouver real-estate marketing firm notes that B.C. and Metro Vancouver will get a substantial share.

The company simply called rennie states in its outlook report for 2022 that B.C. will attract 17 percent of Canada’s new immigrants.

For its part, Metro Vancouver will get 78 percent of those who are coming to the province.

“Population growth in BC will once again be driven by immigration in 2022, with the province welcoming a record of more than 70,000 permanent residents,” rennie states.

“Of these,” added the firm founded by real-estate marketer and arts collector Bob Rennie, “55,000 will call Metro Vancouver home—a new record.”

People need homes, and this will have “implications for our housing market, both ownership and rental”.

Overall, rennie expects the population of Metro Vancouver to grow by an additional 68,000 new residents in 2022.

“This would be 70% higher than the past-decade annual average, and would be primarily driven by international migration,” the outlook stated.

With 55,000 being accounted for by permanent residents coming from abroad, the rest will be made up by people moving in from within Canada.

“The most obvious consequence of adding many more people to our region—necessary for economic reasons—is that it puts pressure on our housing market to ensure everyone has a suitable, adequate, and affordable place to live as an owner or renter,” rennie noted.

“That will be one of our greatest collective challenges as a region as we look at the year (and years) ahead,” the company added.

In its 2022 first quarter housing forecast, the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA) indicates that the average price of a home in the province will increase to $1,006,200 this year.

This would represent an 8.5 percent increase from the 2021 average price of $927,800.

The housing market has been dealing with a shortage of homes for sale, with the BCREA noting that the current year started with the lowest market inventory in history.