Canada's housing agency makes new efforts to scrutinize foreign cash in real estate

Canada's major housing agency Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.(CMHC) is looking for new methods to track foreign ownership in the country's soaring real estate markets.

The Vancouver Sun reported on Monday that the housing agency may tap money laundering police and classify international university students as foreign buyers.

CMHC has been in contact with at least eight government agencies to find data on offshore buyers in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal as prices continue to soar.

"At this time, no existing tool can provide a definitive measure of the level of foreign investment in Canada's housing markets," Karine LeBlanc, an agency spokeswoman, was quoted by Vancouver Sun as saying.

"That said, CMHC regularly engages in discussions internally, as well as with industry experts, as part of its continued efforts to develop a program of work that would better capture data on foreign buyers," she added.

The push for data comes amid concerns that foreign money is driving prices up, making houses unaffordable for local Canadians and putting it at risk of a crash if the funds pull out quickly.

Politicians have been under pressure to get a better handle on the numbers and consider measures to cool the inflows.

Prices in the housing market have been increasing, with the benchmark price of a detached home in Vancouver rising 27 percent to 1.3 million CAD (0.93 million U.S. dollars) in February from the same month last year. Endi