The influx of 'hedge city' buying from wealthy individuals in emerging markets has only just started. The amount of lending inside China has risen US$15 trillion in the last six years, which is more lending than was done in the last 150 years of the US banking system. At the moment most of that money is stuck in China, but the new leader Xi Jingping is determined to relax the capital controls that currently stops all but a trickle of that money from flooding out into other property markets.

A hedge city is a place where wealthy people in booming but unstable societies — think China, Russia, the Middle East, and similar areas — pile into local real-estate markets, driving up values and supporting a luxury-construction boom. Unlike London, notorious for its Russian oligarchs, the typical hedge city is innocuous, offering privacy and seclusion as well as social and political stability.

Vancouver’s appeal consists of comfort and security, making it what Andy Yan calls a "hedge city." "What hedge cities offer is social and political stability, and, in the case of Vancouver, it also offers long-term protection against climate change," he said.