Hong Kong and China has a similar restrictions or tax on non-citizens who attempt to buy property in China. China in fact disallows non-residents from purchasing real estate until they've lived there for a certain period of time.<p>I'll be curious as to see how this affects Vancouver real estate prices. Right now it doesn't seem to have had a huge effect, but if the market crashes, it will be very interesting to watch to see how it ends up. Real estate there has been going straight up for so long, it's a way of life for 2 generations who have never seen a major crash. I wonder if the market does crash, it will shake out the way the dotcom bust did, where people kept buying because they thought "it's on sale" but it never reached a bottom until so many people lost so much money.