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Proxy Owners and Real Estate Secrecy in B.C.

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avi-werde-hHz4yrvxwlA-unsplashYou’d think when someone buys a $4.5 million home in Vancouver’s West Side, they’d at least live in it. Or maybe rent it out. Or maintain it. Or, you know, actually exist. But in British Columbia, you’ll find street after street of luxury homes sitting dark, lifeless, and mysteriously maintained by “family offices,” “holding corporations,” or “students” whose only job is to show ID and sign paperwork.

That’s not just weird—it’s a system. And it’s called proxy ownership.

Proxy ownership is the practice of buying real estate through intermediaries—be it family members, shell companies, trusts, or other legal vehicles—to obscure who the actual owner is. In B.C., this has become more than a loophole. It’s a business model. And it’s quietly become one of the most powerful forces behind housing inflation, secrecy, and speculation.

So how did we let it happen? Simple: we never closed the door. We never required transparency. And we never thought to ask why someone with no Canadian income and no obvious career would need five condos in Burnaby.

What Is Proxy Ownership—And How Is It Legal?

Let’s define it clearly. A proxy owner is not the person who funded the purchase—but the one whose name is on the title. That proxy might be a relative (like a student or a spouse), a nominee buyer hired through a lawyer, or a corporate entity that exists only on paper. And in Canada, none of this is inherently illegal.

For years, anyone could walk into a notary’s office in Metro Vancouver, set up a company with a nominee director, and buy property—no questions asked. The actual buyer—the one providing the money—never needed to be listed. No disclosure. No oversight.

The Panama Papers, FinCEN Files, and more recently the Cullen Commission’s Final Report have all pointed to B.C. as a high-risk jurisdiction for real estate laundering precisely because of these ownership structures. According to the Cullen Commission, British Columbia’s real estate sector has served as a global “wealth parking zone” for illicit capital—enabled by layers of legal opacity.

We’re not talking about a few rogue cases. Between 2008 and 2020, over $20 billion in laundered money was estimated to have flowed through B.C.’s real estate market, much of it via proxies, trusts, and shell corporations.

One particularly infamous example? A foreign national transferred millions into Canada through a series of casinos and third-party “friends,” ultimately purchasing several luxury homes under the names of their children, who were still in high school. All legal. All hidden. All done through proxies.

Who Uses Proxy Owners—And Why?

It’s not just criminals. Proxy ownership is also used by:

  • Wealthy overseas investors who don’t want their home country to know where their money is.

  • High-net-worth individuals in divorce proceedings or tax audits.

  • Political elites avoiding sanctions, scrutiny, or asset freezes.

  • Developers hiding how much land they control in order to manipulate markets or bypass zoning restrictions.

  • Foreign buyers dodging B.C.’s 20% foreign buyer tax by using Canadian family members or business partners as front buyers.

Let’s be honest: this system rewards people who understand how to exploit it—and that rarely includes the average Canadian buyer.

In one 2022 study by Transparency International Canada, researchers reviewed 100 of the most expensive real estate transactions in Vancouver and found that over 45% were held by entities that obscured the true owner, including trusts and private companies. In several cases, ownership was traced to individuals facing international corruption investigations.

This doesn’t just affect high-end properties. Proxy buying is now common in the pre-sale condo market, where units are reserved by relatives, staff members, or offshore agents acting on behalf of clients. One developer in Richmond was caught offering cash incentives to sales reps who recruited proxies to help circumvent the foreign buyer tax.

The Cost of Secrecy: How Proxy Ownership Warps the Market

It’s tempting to dismiss all this as a problem for rich neighborhoods. But the ripple effects hit everyone.

First, it inflates prices. When the true buyer has limitless capital and no interest in value, they’re willing to pay above market—sometimes way above market. This artificially raises comps and fuels speculative pricing, pricing out local families and first-time buyers.

Second, it erodes public trust. When homes sit empty, when title searches lead to shell corporations, when students appear to “own” multimillion-dollar estates—people stop believing the system is fair. And they’re right.

Third, it chokes supply. Homes used for money laundering or wealth storage don’t go back into the rental market. They don’t house workers or families. They just sit there—dead investments on paper.

In Vancouver, the vacancy rate for high-end homes is significantly higher than for working-class housing. According to City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax data, over 10,800 homes were declared vacant in 2023. Many of those are suspected to be proxy-held, owned by people who have no interest in ever living in Canada.

Even the B.C. Speculation and Vacancy Tax, introduced in 2018, has loopholes. Properties held in trusts or by family members often qualify for exemptions. Meanwhile, ordinary renters struggle to find units that aren’t 30 years old and falling apart.

Attempts at Reform—And Why They Haven’t Worked (Yet)

cytonn-photography-TVyhDpvL8MY-unsplashTo be fair, B.C. has tried to tackle this issue. In 2020, the province launched the Land Owner Transparency Registry (LOTR), which requires all corporations, trusts, and partnerships that own land in B.C. to disclose their “beneficial owners.”

Sounds great in theory. But in practice? It’s under-enforced, not easily searchable, and riddled with self-reporting loopholes. There are no random audits. No significant penalties for non-compliance. And because much of the data is redacted or buried behind paywalls, it’s still incredibly difficult for journalists or watchdog groups to trace ownership without court orders.

Meanwhile, Canada’s federal beneficial ownership registry, announced with fanfare in 2023, has yet to meaningfully affect real estate. It’s voluntary. It’s not retroactive. And it doesn’t override provincial jurisdiction. Which means in B.C., the secrecy remains.

Until we start treating opaque ownership structures as a threat to housing affordability, financial stability, and democratic integrity, nothing will change.

How Do We Fix It? Transparency With Teeth

If we’re serious about ending proxy ownership abuse, here’s what needs to happen:

  • Mandate full disclosure of beneficial ownership, publicly accessible, searchable, and legally binding.

  • Ban nominee ownership structures for residential property unless formally declared and taxed as such.

  • Impose automatic audits on high-risk purchases—such as homes owned by foreign nationals, trusts, or young individuals with no income.

  • Limit the number of properties held by any one beneficial owner, including through companies or partnerships.

  • Apply the foreign buyer tax retroactively to purchases later revealed to involve offshore money.

  • Fund investigative journalism and watchdog groups to trace hidden ownership networks.

Let’s be clear: housing isn’t just a local issue anymore. It’s part of the global capital pipeline—and B.C. is one of its easiest entry points. If we allow secrecy to define ownership, we’ll never fix affordability, never reclaim livability, and never rebuild trust in our market.

And if we don’t act now? The people who benefit from proxy ownership will keep building empires. Everyone else will be left searching listings they’ll never be able to afford.

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