The effects of money laundering on the Canadian real estate market

Abstract

White collar criminals benefit from their status and positions. Further, they invest the proceeds of crime into the Canadian real estate market, driving up the price of home ownership for working-class Canadians. This thesis explores the relationship between FINTRAC financial transaction reporting in all sectors and suspicious transaction reporting in the real estate sector respectively with the MLS composite home price index. The findings suggest that greater action is needed by real estate representatives to increase the difficulty of elite criminals to profit from weak regulation and enforcement in the industry. The proposed recommendations include a commission incentive to encourage real estate agents to submit suspicious transaction reports, a national database of beneficial ownership identification, and improved public awareness of the occurrence of money laundering in real estate.