Greater Vancouver has the highest rate among seven major Canadian metropolitan regions of homeownership by non-residents.

Non-residents are Canadian citizens and non-citizens who live outside Canada.

The rate of non-resident homeownership in Metro Vancouver is at 4.2 percent, based on data by Statistics Canada.

The data comes from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, which covers the following provinces and territories: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

The information was released Tuesday (July 19) as part of the statistics agency’s broader report focusing on Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.

Based on the 2020 data, Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories has the lowest share of properties owned by non-residents at 1.4 percent.

Winnipeg in Manitoba follows second at 1.5 percent; Moncton, New Brunswick, 1.7 percent; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2.4 percent.

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Toronto, Ontario register 2.7 percent each, and are topped by B.C.’s Metro Vancouver at 4.2 percent.

Moreover, the Statistics Canada report analyzed real-estate sales on a provincial level to recent immigrants in 2019.

Recent immigrants are those who have arrived in Canada since 2010.

In Manitoba, 16 percent of all buyers in 2019 were recent immigrants, a higher proportion compared to B.C. (11.9 percent), Yukon (10.4 percent), New Brunswick (6.8 percent) and Nova Scotia (six percent).

By contrast, Statistics Canada observed, the share of established immigrant buyers or those who arrived in Canada before 2010 was lower in Manitoba (11.2 percent) than in British Columbia (23.7 percent), but higher than in the two other provinces and one territory.

“Lower prices help explain the ability of recent immigrants to purchase real estate, as the overall median sale price of properties in Manitoba was $258,000 in 2019, less than half the median price of properties sold in British Columbia in the same year ($552,000),” the report explained.