Home sales in Vancouver plummeted 39.5 per cent in January from a year ago and fell 11 per cent from December, five months after the government slapped a tax on foreign buyers.
January marked the sixth consecutive month of falling sales in Canada's hottest real estate market, where an influx of mainly Chinese offshore buyers has helped push the price of a typical home to more than 12 times the median resident's household income.
Vancouver topped a list of cities around the world that UBS has identified as most at risk of a housing bubble. Sydney placed fourth after London and Stockholm.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said the monthly sales - 1523 homes sold in January - marked a 10.3pc drop on the 10-year average for the month.
'It's a lukewarm start to the year compared to 2016," said Dan Morrison, the board's president.
"While we saw near record-breaking sales at this time last year, home buyers and sellers are more reluctant to engage so far in 2017."
The government of British Columbia - Vancouver is the province's biggest city - acted last year to cool the market, slapping a new 15 per cent tax on offshore buyers in August.
The average benchmark price for detached properties in the Pacific port has fallen 17.8 per cent to $C1,474,800 ($1,475,000) from a record high of $C1.83 million in January 2016. The average price has fallen 6.6 per cent in the past six months and edged 0.6 per cent lower from December.
The composite benchmark price for all residential properties - detached, units and townhomes - has fallen 3.7 per cent since June.
The BC Ministry of Finance earlier reported that the percentage of sales in Vancouver to foreign residents had plummetted since the new foreign buyers' tax went into effect on August 2.
In September, foreign purchasers were involved in 1.3 per cent of all transactions in the city of 1.5 million people.
"From June 10 to August 1, the period before the additional tax took effect, foreign purchasers were involved in 13.2 per cent of residential property transfers in Metro Vancouver," a ministry statement said.
