Wente, you are misinformed. Foreigner purchases account for way more than 4-5% of all purchases. If you go to open houses in Markham, you will only Asian faces. 

Do not listen to the realtor association. They will lie, cheat and steal to get their commissions, to get the boom going. Before Vancouver imposed their version of the foreign buyer tax, the realtor association says that foreigner purchases accounted for only 6% of all purchases. Then, why did the number of transactions plummet more than 50% after the tax was announced?