Canada is set to ban Nigerians and other foreigners from buying homes for two years as prices of real estate properties soar in the North American country.

The measure will help the country provide billions of dollars to spur construction activity in an attempt to cool off a surging real-estate market, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

According to the international news platform, the ban would be contained in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget today, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

However, the foreign-buyer ban won’t apply to students, foreign workers or foreign citizens who are permanent residents of Canada, the source said.

The move signals that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is becoming more assertive about taming one of the developed world’s most expensive housing markets — and that the government is growing more concerned about the political backlash to inflation and the rising cost of housing.

Home prices in Canada have soared more than 50% over the past two years. The market saw a record monthly increase in February as buyers acted ahead of rate increases by the Bank of Canada, taking the benchmark price of a home to C$869,300 ($693,000).

Canada, one of the top destinations of Nigerians, has witnessed an upsurge of global immigrants of late including Nigerians in their 20s and 30s who relocated after the #EndSARS protests in October 2020.

The Canadian Government had also said it targets receiving 1.2 million immigrants from 2021 to 2023 in order to make up for a shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. (The PUNCH)

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