This article and Mr. Siddall's comments exemplify the usual confusion between "foreign" and Chinese (for this read "Mainland Chinese").  Immigrants are not "foreign".   China is and has been since 1997, by a huge margin,  the leading source country of business immigrants to Canada, accounting for around 80% of the total.  Once landed in Canada they become "Permanent Residents" pursuant to immigration legislation and they no longer count as "foreign" for purposes of most official statistics.   So, for the few who wish to have a rational discussion about the issue, perhaps the focus should change.  What we should be measuring is not the status of the buyers (citizens, permanent residents, foreign nationals) but rather the source of the funds.  In the case of Vancouver, massive amounts of money originating in China and other "foreign" countries is invested in local real estate by people who, by virtue of being "Permanent Residents" to our country, are not "foreign".