Canada's national housing agency is starting to use new tools to get a handle on just how much foreign money is flowing into the country's housing market. 
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) told CBC News on Monday that the housing agency has been in contact with police agencies that track money laundering and tax authorities in order to beef up its data collection on the impact of foreign buyers.
"At this time, no existing tool can provide a definitive measure of the level of foreign investment in Canada's housing markets," spokeswoman Karine LeBlanc said, confirming details of a story first reported by Bloomberg. "That said, CMHC regularly engages in discussions internally, as well as with industry experts, as part of its continued efforts to develop a program of work that would better capture data on foreign buyers."
That includes discussions with FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit, which has a mandate is to detect, prevent and deter money laundering. The CMHC is also working more closely with the Canada Revenue Agency in its attempts to follow the money.
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