As Canada’s home prices soared during COVID-19, real-estate money laundering audits fell 64%

anti-money laundering watchdog plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, new figures show, a deeply “troubling” sign for authorities tracking dirty money, financial crime experts say.The data from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) showed money laundering audits in real estate dropped from 146 in 2019-20 to just 53 in 2020-21 – a decrease of 64 per cent.

That’s down from nearly 200 audits of real-estate entities in 2018-19.The new numbers, obtained through an access to information request, come as Canada’s housing market has been on fire for the last two years, with prices reaching historic levels fuelled by ultra-low interest rates and a lack of supply across the country.

International students and offshore banking flagged in Canadian real estate money laundering Canada’s national average home price was $713,500 in December 2021, up 17.7 per cent from the same month last year, with nearly 667,000 residential properties – or $459 million – trading hands last year, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.And with hundreds of millions flowing in Canadian real estate, financial crime experts said the drop in examinations by the federal watchdog was “stunning” as law enforcement could be missing vital intelligence when it comes to tackling illicit money flowing through the housing market.“These are troubling figures,” said Matt McGuire, a financial crime expert with the AML shop in Toronto. “There’s less scrutiny, less guidance for reporting entities … in terms of pushing them towards the intelligence ends that (investigators) need to go after these criminals.”According to the new figures, investigators found nearly 230 issues with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist.