Metro Vancouver Real Estate - The Most Asian City Outside Of Asia

Metro Vancouver - The most 'Asian' City In The World Outside of Asia

This ethnic make-up and serious change obviously brings benefits and challenges to the Metro Vancouver area. Our real estate team at The BC Home Hunter Group have designed and positioned ourselves to be far ahead of this and other factors seriously affecting the BC and western Canadian real estate markets. We understand full well the overwhelming significance the Asian immigration and net migration from across Canada does and will have on your cities and communities. The BC Home Hunter Group’s in house real estate and business analyst, Robert Pybus, has been writing about and discussing these issues for decades.

So, what really is the significance of Metro Vancouver becoming the most “Asian” city outside Asia? Forty-three per cent of Metro Vancouver residents have an Asian heritage, which is a much higher proportion than any other major city outside the continent of Asia.
A new Statistics Canada report projects the number of those with Asian roots in Metro Vancouver will continue to grow at a faster rate than the non-Asian population.

Around the globe, the only major cities outside Asia that come close to Metro Vancouver for their portion of residents with Asian backgrounds are San Francisco (33 per cent Asian), London, England (21 per cent), Metro Toronto (35 per cent), Calgary (23 per cent) and Sydney, Australia (19 per cent).

Observers from Asian and non-Asian backgrounds predict that as a result of Metro Vancouver’s unique demographics, residents should expect more serious changes, adjustments that will create opportunities and richness, as well as tension and challenges. Look for a potential shift in urban voting blocs as wealthy and affluent immigrant voters begin exerting their influence at the ballot box.

These cultural analysts foresee an accelerating rise of Asian-oriented restaurants, retail outlets, artistic events, religions, community service organizations, schools, neighbourhoods, family-reunification programs, international business partnerships, corporate customs and language-specific newspapers and TV stations. We are all familiar with the overwhelming affect those same Asian real estate buyers and investors have had, in particular over the past 10 years. The City of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have for the most part been segregated by the differing Asian communities.

The loosely associated Asian cohort in Metro Vancouver consists of three main large groups — particularly ethnic Chinese, Indians and Filipinos — followed by smaller populations of people rooted in South Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Vietnam, Uganda, Singapore, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere.

The other large cities of the Pacific Northwest do not come close to Metro Vancouver for the proportion of people with backgrounds in Asia.

In Victoria, just 11 per cent of the population has Asian heritage. In Seattle, the proportion is 13 per cent and in Portland it’s eight per cent.

Statistics Canada reports show the percentage of those with Asian heritages will continue to grow rapidly across Metro Vancouver, a region that has doubled in population in just 30 years.

One Statistics Canada report, released in February, shows Metro was the third fastest-growing city behind Toronto and Montreal in Canada between 2001 and 2011.

Another report reveals the lion’s share of Metro’s population expansion is new immigrants.

Nine out of 10 newcomers to Metro Vancouver between 2001 and 2011 were born outside the country. In addition, Statistics Canada reports that 70 per cent of all recent immigrants to Metro Vancouver have origins in Asia.

Meanwhile, 19 per cent of immigrants in the city have European ethnic heritage, while small portions have roots in Latin America or Africa.

What does this rising influence of people with Asian backgrounds — speaking a variety of languages and following many different national customs — mean for Metro? As far as real estate prices and demand look for continued densification in the urban sectors and accelerated suburban growth in both residential and commercial real estate. One day Chilliwack will be the next Burnaby.

Until that time the lower mainland will suffer from serious growing pains. Politicians and special interest groups will ply their own social engineering agendas all of which always cost home owners and all tax payers for generations.

The BC Home Hunter Group's Urban & Suburban Multilingual Real Estate Team is positioned perfectly to assist you with any and all of your lower mainland and BC real estate needs. Call or email Mandeep, Robert and our friendly team members to discuss the sale or purchase of any real estate in our beautiful BC, 604-767-6736.

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