A face of Vancouver's housing market: Phenomenal surge of foreign cash driving homes out of reach for locals

In Nanjing, Mailin Chen is known as the school dropout who became a “veritable billionaire” in China’s construction boom and returned to his village like a Santa Clause to buy the poor homes and help workers get rich. But in Greater Vancouver, Mailin Chen — the buyer of a $51.8-million Point Grey mansion who has owned at least 13 homes in B.C. since 2009 — represents a phenomenal surge of investment from Mainland China driving homes out of reach for locals.