A new study is backing up the theory long held in Vancouver: that the red-hot housing market is being fueled by Chinese buyers and a wealth of offshore money.

Researchers analyzed 172 new home sales on the city’s West Side from August 2014 to February 2015, including posh neighbourhoods like West Point Grey and Dunbar, and found that 66 per cent were purchased by foreign buyers primarily from China.

The study identifies the properties as “some of the most expensive single family home properties in the City of Vancouver.”

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25,000-square-foot Vancouver mansion

The 25,000 square-foot mansion, which sits on more than two acres in the city’s posh Point Grey neighbourhood, was sold to a Chinese businessman. (Vancouver Luxury Real Estate)

Eighteen per cent of those properties sales have no mortgage – and were bought outright with cash. The figure equates to about $100-million in property sales.

Perhaps the most startling study finding was the owner’s occupations: 36 per cent were listed as housewives or students, with little income.

Nearly one-third of occupations of West Side home buyers were listed as housewife or homemaker, at 32 per cent, followed by business person, at 18 per cent, students and managers, at six per cent, and four per cent identified as self-employed.

The homes have an average value of around $3.06-million.

Because Canada doesn’t track foreign ownership, researchers used name analysis to get their data.

City planner Andy Yan said that nearly two-thirds of buyers had “non-anglicized” Mainland Chinese names.

“A non-Anglicized Chinese names may be an indication that an owner may be a recent immigrant to Canada and that an Anglicized Chinese name is an indication of a long time immigrant or non-immigrant and/or multigenerational Canadian of sole or mixed ethnic Chinese ancestry,” the study said.

Authors say the case study is intended to be a snapshot and shouldn’t be interpreted as a representation of all ownership patterns in every Vancouver neighbourhood.