B.C. real estate companies join Clark on Asia trade mission

UBC experts Tsur Somerville and Tom Davidoff weighed in on reports criticizing the participation of real estate companies in Premier Clark’s Asia trade mission.

“It’s bad optics,” UBC business professor Tsur Somerville told CBC News. “At a time when people in the Lower Mainland are very concerned about the extent to which foreign capital is driving up prices here and contributing to affordability options, it seems a little bit politically dicey to take [brokerage] firms … along on a trip to Asia.”

Tom Davidoff, director of UBC’s centre for urban economics and real estate, told CTV News:

 “I think this really does invite the question for the province: If foreign demand is not an important driver of the local real estate market, why are realtors going overseas to look for buyers, and why is the premier inviting them along?” Davidoff said.

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