More first-time home buyers in B.C. received financial assistance from their parents in 2016 than in previous years, according to an informal poll of the province’s notaries public.
The notaries handle more than 60 per cent of B.C. real estate transactions, according to director Dan Boisvert of the Society of Notaries Public of B.C.
About 150 notaries took part in the year-end survey, and of those who took part 72 per cent said first-time buyers “typically” got help from their parents to buy. A year earlier, 57 per cent of the notaries surveyed said first-timers typically got help.
“It’s our anecdotal comments on what we see in our offices,” said Boisvert, a Tsawwassen notary, adding that notaries don’t formally track where their clients get their down-payment money.
