Canada revs up hunt for foreign flows into housing market

Toronto

CANADA'S housing agency, looking for new methods to track foreign ownership in the country's soaring real estate markets, may tap money laundering police and classify international university students as foreign buyers, according to internal documents.

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp (CMHC), the crown corporation that backstops mortgages and tracks new housing data, has been in contact with at least eight government agencies to find data on offshore buyers in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal as prices continue to soar, according to 486 pages of e-mails, briefing notes, and other documents Bloomberg News obtained through a freedom of information request.

"At this time, no existing tool can provide a definitive measure of the level of foreign investment in Canada's housing markets," Karine LeBlanc, an agency spokeswoman, said. "That said, CMHC regularly engages in discussions internally, as well as with industry experts, as part of its continued efforts to develop a programme of work that would bett…