Canada · CAN · snapshot 2026-08-16
Canada
Measured
Currency movement
+0.9%
The local currency bought fewer euros at the end of this window than at the start — a cheaper entry for a euro-denominated buyer, and a worse exit for anyone already holding the asset.
What it does not show. It is not a forecast and not a property return. A currency move and a price move are different facts and routinely point opposite ways; nothing here says which way either is going next.
Foreign-buyer rules
3 of 3 published rules apply
These are the restrictions a foreign buyer meets before price is even discussed — approval regimes, surcharges, ownership limits.
What it does not show. It is not a completeness claim. A rule we have not read is not a rule that does not exist, and this row counts what is cited, not what is in force.
Cost of money
2.25%
The price of money to banks in this jurisdiction, which sets the floor everything else is priced from.
What it does not show. It is emphatically not a mortgage quote. What a non-resident is offered is a different number, usually much higher, and the gap between them is where a market's financing story actually lives.
Supply against absorption
0.69 absorbed per completed, Vancouver
Below one, finished homes are arriving faster than buyers are taking them, and unsold inventory is building.
What it does not show. It is not a price signal and not a forecast. Inventory can build for a year without prices moving, and this counts units rather than value.
Residential price cycle
130.4 against a 2015 base of 100
House prices have risen faster than consumer prices since 2015 — the market is above its own inflation-adjusted level of that year.
What it does not show. It is a position, not a direction, and it is not a valuation. Deflating by consumer prices says nothing about what the asset yields or what credit costs, and a market can sit above its 2015 level for years without that meaning anything is due.
Valuation against its own history
141.2 to income, 159.9 to rent
Housing costs more relative to incomes than it did in 2015, on this country's own index. Buying takes more years of a local salary than it did then, which is a statement about the people who live there rather than about a foreign buyer's return.
What it does not show. It is not comparable to another country's figure. Each index is 100 in its own 2015, so two of these side by side are two different base years wearing the same label — a market at 120 is not dearer than one at 90, it has merely moved further from its own past. It is also not a forecast, and a ratio can stay stretched for a decade.
On the market now
Not measured
No listings platform has been read for this market. The one platform this site can read covers Russian cities only, and inventing a count for anywhere else would be worse than an empty row.
No dossier has been written for this market yet. What follows is the measured layers and the rules, each with its source — not an argument about whether to be here. A market reaches this page as soon as two layers can be cited, because an unwritten thesis is a reason to publish less, not a reason to publish nothing.
The series behind those figures, and the workings
Currency
+0.9%
Twelve-month move in CAD per euro, 1.5982 in 2025-07 to 1.6119 in 2026-07. Positive means the local currency weakened. Source: European Central Bank monthly reference averages.
1.6049
Latest daily fixing, CAD per euro on 2026-08-14. Shown because it is what a reader would see if they went and looked; the window above uses monthly averages, which one volatile day cannot move.
Against other base currencies
A market is cheap or dear relative to the capital entering it, so the same twelve months read differently depending on what the buyer holds. Both legs are quoted per euro, so the euro cancels and no third source is involved.
| Buyer holds | CAD per unit, 2025-07 | CAD per unit, 2026-07 | Twelve-month move |
|---|---|---|---|
| US dollar (USD) | 1.3687 | 1.4118 | +3.1% |
| Pound sterling (GBP) | 1.8483 | 1.8877 | +2.1% |
| Swiss franc (CHF) | 1.7139 | 1.7415 | +1.6% |
| Singapore dollar (SGD) | 1.0683 | 1.0931 | +2.3% |
| Australian dollar (AUD) | 0.8947 | 0.9831 | +9.9% |
Cost of money
2.25%
Central bank policy rate, 2026-07. Source: Bank for International Settlements.
This is the price of money to banks, not the price of money to a non-resident buying a building. The gap between those two is where a market’s financing story actually lives, and it is not in this number. A mortgage quote for a foreign buyer depends on the lender, the asset and the borrower, and no public dataset carries it.
BIS terms permit this figure on a free page and state that nothing in their statistics constitutes investment advice. They also allow inclusion in a commercial product only where it adds no charge, so this series is published here and is not priced into any paid work.
Supply against absorption
One layer, and deliberately not one number. Canada counts dwellings that exist and asks whether anyone moved in; Singapore counts homes that do not exist yet and asks whether anyone has agreed to buy them. Both answer “is what arrives being taken up”, and neither is comparable with the other, so each is labelled by what it actually counted.
Completed against absorbed
Ground-oriented housing only — single-detached and semi-detached. Below 1 means completions ran ahead of buyers and unsold finished stock accumulated.
| Area | Completed | Absorbed | Absorbed per completed | Window to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto | 4,054 | 3,094 | 0.76 | 2026-06 |
| Vancouver | 3,372 | 2,320 | 0.69 | 2026-06 |
Source: CMHC via Statistics Canada.
Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing completions and absorptions of newly completed dwellings. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation of this product.
Background
Annual national statistics from the World Bank, under a licence that permits reuse with attribution. They describe the country; they do not time an entry, and they are not counted as measurements of this market — otherwise every territory on earth would claim to be measured on the strength of one dataset.
| Indicator | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|
| GDP per capita | 55,698 US$ | 2025 |
| Consumer price inflation | 2.1 % | 2025 |
| Population | 41,651,653 | 2025 |
| Urban population | 82.9 % of total | 2025 |
| Official exchange rate | 1.3981 per US$ | 2025 |
What the rules do to a foreign buyer
Each entry cites the instrument and the authority page it was read from, with the date it was retrieved. Facts of law change; the retrieval date is how you know how old this reading is.
| Topic | In force | When it bites | Applies to | What applies | Instrument | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prohibition on purchase by non-Canadians | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | Residential only | Section 4(1) prohibits a non-Canadian from purchasing, directly or indirectly, any residential property. When the prohibition ends is still not settled, and the shape of the uncertainty is now sharper than it was: the consolidated Act was re-read on 2026-08-11 and is current to 2026-06-17, last amended 2023-01-01, and it contains no repeal, sunset or expiry provision at all. So whatever end date exists is not in the Act, and the conflicting accounts around it — a Department of Finance announcement of a two-year extension to 1 January 2027, CMHC guidance still describing the original expiry of 1 January 2025 — are claims about instruments this page has not read. Treat the prohibition as in force and confirm the expiry directly: a stale government page is not evidence that a ban has lapsed, and an Act with no sunset in it is not evidence that one does not exist elsewhere. | Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, s. 4(1). Consolidated text read 2026-08-11, shown as current to 2026-06-17 and last amended 2023-01-01. | 2026-08-11 |
| What the prohibition does not reach | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | Residential only | It covers buildings of up to three dwelling units, and parts of buildings such as semi-detached houses and condominium units — a building of four or more dwelling units falls outside it. It also applies only inside a Census Metropolitan Area or Census Agglomeration, so residential property outside those areas may be purchased. For a foreign buyer this makes the asset class and the map coordinate decisive before price is discussed at all. | Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Regulations (SOR/2022-250) | 2026-08-10 |
| Underused Housing Tax — ended forwards, still owed backwards | Ended, still owed2022-01-01 → 2024-12-31 | While you hold it | Residential only | An annual federal tax of 1% on the ownership of vacant or underused housing, in effect from 1 January 2022 and aimed principally at foreign national owners. Bill C-15 received Royal Assent on 26 March 2026 and removed it going forward: affected owners do not file or pay for 2025 and subsequent calendar years, and returns already filed for 2025 are being cancelled by letter. The obligation for 2022, 2023 and 2024 survives — the Canada Revenue Agency states plainly that the requirement to file and pay still applies to those years. So this reaches nobody buying today and reaches anybody who held Canadian housing in those three years, including through a partnership, trust or corporation. | Underused Housing Tax Act, as amended by Bill C-15 (Royal Assent 26 March 2026). Read from the Canada Revenue Agency's Underused Housing Tax page, which the agency serves only to a browser — curl and automated fetch both receive HTTP 403. | 2026-08-12 |
What supports this, what would make it wrong, and how it could go
Record
| Why this market is on the list | Added to the friction ledger as the clearest example of a prohibition bounded by geography and by building size rather than by price, so the rule decides which assets exist for a foreign buyer at all. |
|---|---|
| Dossier | None written. Layers and rules only, which is why this market reads as “Measured” rather than reviewed. |
| Next review | 2026-10-10 |
| Evidence snapshot | 2026-08-16 |