Renters in the Maritimes and B.C. appear to be the most pessimistic of all Canadians about moving into home ownership, even as a quarter of them say they are spending more than half their income on rent, a new survey has found.
Alberta renters are also showing low levels of ability or desire to become home owners, as prices across Canada continue to hold steady at staggeringly high levels, according to real-estate company Royal LePage’s 2024 Canadian Renters Report, released Thursday.
Only renters in Manitoba and Saskatchewan appear more optimistic, with 36 per cent saying they plan to buy property in the next two years, and 9 per cent saying they are paying more than half their income for rent.
The tough situation for renters has been a steady trend since at least 2020, said Nina Knudsen, a Royal LePage property manager in North Vancouver.
“I have executive couples living in basement suites, paying $2,500 for a one-bedroom, trying to put funds away for a down payment,” she said in an interview.
Pessimism toward home ownership is the product of factors such as low supply, high demand and high interest rates, which have contributed to a housing affordability crisis in major cities across Canada.
Tenants who had thought they would move into ownership quickly have ended up staying as renters because they can’t qualify for mortgages or find anything affordable in the places they want to live if they do qualify.
The Royal LePage survey of 1,500 Canadians, conducted online between June 7 and 10 by Leger Opinion, showed other marked differences for renters in different parts of the country.
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In B.C., a quarter of renters hoping to buy in the next two years say they would use a family gift or an inheritance to make their down payment. In Ontario, that reliance is even higher: 37 per cent say they are counting on that kind of help. But in Quebec, only 16 per cent feel that that is what they’ll have to rely on.
The Prairie provinces also diverge sharply. In Alberta, only 27 per cent of renters say they are thinking of buying a home in the next two years. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the number is 36 per cent.
Atlantic Canada and Quebec registered the lowest proportions of those thinking they will buy soon, at 22 per cent, although the situation in Quebec is likely a product of the prevalence of renting there and a lot of renter security – which means people feel less driven to buy in order to feel like they have stability.
B.C. and Ontario appear to be at about the same levels when it comes to likelihood of buying. Sixty-one per cent of respondents in both B.C. and Ontario said they didn’t think their incomes would allow them to buy in the neighbourhoods they want to live in. In Quebec, that number was 51 per cent.
About a third of Canadians are renters, although the proportion has been rising and the average renter incomes have been changing, as more and more people are shut out of the home-ownership market.
Of all those who responded in the Royal LePage survey, only a little more than a quarter said they would likely buy property in the next two years.
Because the survey was done through a web panel, a margin of error was not listed.