Vancouver tax set to scuttle over 400 deals: brokers

Toronto

BRITISH Columbia's decision to impose a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers to cool Vancouver's scorching housing market is poised to derail more than 400 deals worth millions of dollars and may prompt calls for legal action.

At least 427 deals are likely to collapse due to the new measure, according to Dan Morrison, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, citing responses from 27 brokers to an e-mail inquiry. The group didn't calculate the value of those sales, though they would be worth about C$404 million (S$414 million) based on the average purchase by a foreign buyer of C$946,945.