The amortization period is the total length of time it will take to fully pay off a mortgage loan through regular payments, typically expressed in years.
Why an Amortization Period Matters in Real Estate
In Canadian real estate, the amortization period plays a key role in determining a borrower’s monthly mortgage payment and the total interest paid over the life of the loan. A longer amortization period results in lower monthly payments but higher overall interest costs, while a shorter period leads to higher payments but faster equity buildup and lower interest paid.
Most insured mortgages in Canada are capped at a 25-year amortization, though uninsured mortgages can extend up to 30 or 35 years, depending on the lender. Lenders often combine the amortization period with shorter mortgage terms (e.g., 5 years), after which borrowers must renew their mortgage under potentially different rates and conditions.
Choosing the right amortization period depends on a buyer’s financial goals, risk tolerance, and income stability. First-time buyers might favour longer periods for affordability, while seasoned investors may opt for shorter durations to reduce debt quickly.
Example of an Amortization Period
A buyer takes a $500,000 mortgage with a 25-year amortization. Their payments are calculated to fully repay the loan over 25 years, assuming the interest rate and payment schedule remain consistent.
Key Takeaways
Amortization refers to the total life of a mortgage loan.
Longer periods mean smaller monthly payments but more interest.
Shorter periods cost more monthly but build equity faster.
Common amortization in Canada is 25 years for insured loans.
Impacts budgeting, refinancing, and long-term affordability.
Receivership is a legal process where a court or secured creditor appoints a receiver to take control of a borrower’s assets, such as property or. more
A REALTOR is a licensed real estate professional who is a member of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and adheres to its Code of Ethics and. more
Property maintenance refers to the ongoing upkeep, repair, and management of a building or land to preserve its safety, functionality, and appearance.. more
An artistic rendering of the new elementary school at 215 W 1st Avenue in Olympic Village. / McFarland Marceau Architects, Vancouver School Board
The new elementary school announced for Vancouver's Olympic Village last year is one step closer to becoming a reality. The City of Vancouver has now published a rezoning application, initiating the formal approval process.
The subject site of the new elementary school is 215 W 1st Avenue, a square parcel within Hinge Park, along Columbia Street, steps away from False Creek.
The property is currently vacant, owned by the City of Vancouver, leased to the Vancouver School Board (VSB) for 99 years, and BC Assessment values the property at $12,205,000.
According to the rezoning application, the 215 W 1st Avenue site was set aside through the Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan (SEFC ODP) for the purpose of constructing a new school. The property was rezoned to CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) back in April 2007, but the VSB has now submitted a rezoning application to amend the zone and allow for increased height. The existing zoning allows for institutional use, such as a school, and there is no proposed change to its use.
The 215 West 1st Avenue site within the Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan (SEFC ODP). / McFarland Marceau Architects, Vancouver School Board
Proposed for the site is a four-storey elementary school with 64,583 sq. ft of space, including classrooms, gymnasiums, and community facilities. The rooftop is also expected to be "activated" with a covered play and learning area, as well as mechanical equipment. The building has a maximum height of 62 ft (18.8 m) and a proposed density of 3.0 FSR.
"The text amendment to the existing Olympic Village By-law is sought to increase the height of the proposed new elementary school, so that it can accommodate a school population of 630 students, which is considered necessary to serve this area of the City given current enrolment pressures," said the Vancouver School Board in its application. "Given the restricted dimensions of the site area set aside for the school, the new school will require four stories resulting in a height of 18.8 meters to the top of the roof slab above the uppermost habitable floor, which is 5.3 meters greater than the 13.5 meters stipulated by the existing By-law."
"Since the approval of the SEFC ODP in 2006 and of the Olympic Village By-law in 2007, large sections of the SEFC area have been developed with a greater density than that anticipated in the early 2000s, mainly through increased building heights in areas 1B, 2B, and 2C. The higher population density, along with the continued emphasis of creating a family-oriented neighbourhood, has created a demand for a larger school than anticipated by the SEFC ODP."
According to the rezoning application, the new elementary school would have a staff capacity of 62 people, provide six vehicle parking spaces (not including pick-up and drop-off spots), 42 bicycle parking spaces, and end-of-trip facilities.
An overview (left) and rendering (right) of the new elementary school planned for Olympic Village. / McFarland Marceau Architects, Vancouver School Board
The requirement for a school in Olympic Village was recognized as early as 2005, but did not really advance until March 2023, when the Ministry of Education and Child Care approved a concept plan for the new school and directed the Vancouver School Board to conduct feasibility assessments. In April 2024, the Province then approved $150 million towards the project.
According to the Vancouver School Board, increasing enrolment demand was anticipated when the SEFC ODP was created and schools in the area now include Simon Fraser Elementary, False Creek Elementary, Edith Cavell Elementary, General Wolfe Elementary, David Livingstone Elementary, Mount Pleasant Elementary, and Crosstown šxʷwəq̓ ʷəθət Elementary.
As one example, the VSB notes that Simon Fraser Elementary, built in 1958, has a capacity of 182 students but had 342 students enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year, which translates to a 188% operating capacity.
"The commitment by the Provincial Government to build an elementary school in Olympic Village provides a pathway to a long-term resolution to much of the enrolment challenges in this area of the city," said the Vancouver School Board in its application. On its website, the VSB says that if approvals are secured in 2025-2026, construction could begin in 2027 and the school could open by 2030.
The City of Vancouver has scheduled the Q&A period for the rezoning application for Wednesday, July 16 to Tuesday, July 29.
This article has been produced in partnership with Interac.
In the fast-paced, high-stakes world of real estate, verifying someone’s identity is no menial task — and it’s never been more important.
Whether you’re a buyer or a seller trading hands on a home, a renter signing a fresh lease, or a professional who oversees hundreds of deals a year, modern digital verification tools are poised to reshape how you protect privacy, validate identities, and close your real estate deals with confidence in today's market.
A leading player in the digital verification space is Interac VerifiedTM; a suite of services from one of the most trusted sources for secure transactions, Canada-wide.
Combining ease of use with serious security measures, Interac Verified sets a new standard for how the real estate industry handles identity verification through trusted data sources and government-issued documents in 2025. And if you're not already using this suite of resources — well, the time is now.
Why Real Estate Needs Verification Innovation
Real estate has long been a magnet for fraudsters; the risk isn't a new one. But as the sector continues to digitize, it faces increasingly sophisticated threats, including identity theft and data breaches. Manual verification methods — still common across the industry — don't only open the door to these risks, but they’re also inefficient when compared to digital methods. These traditional methods can result in delayed transaction turnarounds and increased risk due to human error.
What's more, professionals are under pressure to meet ever-evolving regulations, such as Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) obligations, Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) strategies. Failing to comply can jeopardize business — not to mention client experience (and trust).
This is where the three Interac Verified offerings come into play — Interac® document verification service, Interac® verification service, and, introducing: the new Interac Verified credential service. Each of these services help streamline onboarding, support compliance, and deliver fast, safe ways to confirm a person is who they say they are.
Interac Document Verification Service
Interac document verification service uses a simple three-step process: A user takes a photo of an accepted government-issued ID, snaps a live selfie to be used for a biometric liveness check, and, in minutes, they can have their identity verified.
For real estate pros with businesses acting as relying parties, onboarding is as simple as configuring your desired verification method via the Interac Verified business portal, and then prompting users to verify with Interac document verification service.
Accepted documents include Canadian driver’s licences, passports (Canadian and select international), provincial photo ID cards, permanent resident cards, select provincial photo health cards, Indian Status cards, and veteran’s service cards1.
This type of digital service isn't just convenient in today's real estate market, but it can actually help support compliance. For example, as of last January, the Law Society of Ontario requires law firms using digital signing platforms (ex: DocuSign) to verify client identity using approved methods. Interac document verification can directly support this requirement, making it especially useful for real estate lawyers and agents (and those working with these professionals to get their real estate deals done).
Interac Verification Service
The second offering in the Interac suite of verification solutions, Interac verification service allows users to verify who they are using their existing online banking login with a participating Canadian financial institution2. Once logged in, they can consent to securely share personal data (like name, address, and date of birth) with the requesting business, and swiftly and easily complete verification.
Again here, real estate professionals follow the steps outlined above for relying parties. Once users move through the verification steps, your business will receive the requested verification data in seconds.
For buyers and renters, the ability to verify identity and data so quickly — and without fumbling with physical documents — makes for a frictionless user experience. Meanwhile, Interac verification service helps streamline real estate professionals’ compliance with FINTRAC rules and reduces time spent on manual checks.
Supported by leading Canadian financial institutions and used by businesses nationwide, this service helps minimize fraud risk, by leveraging the security services built to protect Canadians and their financial assets. When it comes to fast onboarding, fewer errors, and top-tier security, Interac verification service just makes sense — especially for those in the know in real estate.
Interac
Introducing: Interac Verified credential service
Combining the strengths of Interac document verification service and Interac verification service, the new Interac Verified credential service introduces a reusable credential that can streamline verification across the real estate transaction journey.
Designed with both security and simplicity in mind, this credential allows users to verify once*, and then safely share only the necessary identity information with relying parties; no repeated document uploads, no redundant steps.
By leveraging trusted sources — such as online banking logins and accepted government-issued IDs — and storing credentials directly on a user’s smartphone (protected by smartphone-level security measures and encryption), the Interac Verified credential service offers real estate pros a more holistic, efficient, and privacy-conscious way to move through client transactions3. For renters, buyers, and sellers, the credential service means faster interactions — and greater peace of mind.
Signaling strong industry confidence, FCT — the leading provider of title and real estate solutions nationwide — is deploying the new service across its digital real estate ecosystem, establishing a foundation for smarter and more secure Canadian real estate transactions.
Verification For All
For buyers and sellers, Interac Verified brings confidence to processes that can often feel murky. For renters, it reduces the hold-ups in application processes — especially in hot, fast-moving, and competitive markets. And for real estate professionals — from agents and lawyers to mortgage specialists and developers — Interac Verified streamlines operations and supports critical compliance needs.
In short: the Interac Verified suite of tools is the resource that everyone in real estate should be reaching for in 2025 — and beyond.
*With the Interac Verified credential service, users can reuse their information stored in a credential to validate their identity for a period of up to 12 months.
1For full list of government-issued documents eligible for verification by the Interac document verification service, clickhere.
2For a list of participating banks or credit unions that can be used to log in or access the Interac verification serviceor generate an Interac Verified credential, clickhere.
3For full list of government-issued documents eligible for verification to generate an Interac Verified credential, clickhere.
Interac and the Interac Verified logo are trademarks of Interac Corp. Used under licence.
As world leaders gather in Canada for the G7 Summit, they’ll be talking about the big topics: global security, climate change, innovation, and economic resilience. These are critical issues, no doubt, but one of the most pressing challenges of our time will barely make the agenda: the housing crisis. From Toronto to Tokyo, Paris to San Francisco, housing affordability is deteriorating. Rents are rising faster than wages, homeownership is increasingly out of reach, and even middle-income earners are struggling to stay in the cities they work in. The crisis is no longer local — it's global. And yet, it still lacks the coordinated response we see in other international challenges.
We treat housing as a local issue, managed by cities and provinces — but what if we didn’t? What if we approached housing with the same level of international urgency, cooperation, and learning as we do other G7 priorities?
That said, here's what a 'G7 of Housing' might look like?
Vienna would demonstrate how to deliver lasting affordability through land policy:
Vienna is often held up as a gold standard when it comes to housing. In this city of nearly 2 million, over 60% of the population lives in rent-controlled or publicly subsidized housing. This isn’t accidental — it’s the result of decades of policy that treats housing as infrastructure.
One of Vienna’s greatest strengths is the city’s active role in shaping housing — planning, funding, and often building it. The city sets clear standards for design quality and sustainability, and only supports projects that meet those expectations. Much of the land remains publicly owned, allowing Vienna to guide development outcomes over the long term. The result is housing that’s not only affordable, but well-built and integrated into neighbourhoods.
In Canada, and especially in Toronto, cities are starting to engage more directly in housing — but without the same powers or resources. While we can learn from Vienna, replicating it here would require a significant shift in how cities are funded, how land is managed, and how much responsibility we’re willing to give local governments.
Japan would show how zoning flexibility keeps housing supply responsive and steady:
While most developed countries are facing severe shortages, Japan has maintained housing affordability in its major cities—including Tokyo, one of the most populous cities in the world.
Japan offers a compelling example of how national planning policy can support housing abundance. Unlike many Western countries, Japan has a nationally standardized zoning system with just a dozen broadly defined land-use categories. These categories are inclusive and cumulative, meaning more intense uses (like apartments or small commercial) are often allowed in lower-density zones. This approach allows a mix of housing types, including mid-rise buildings, to be built near detached homes without triggering major planning battles.
Crucially, zoning decisions are made at the national level, which limits the ability of local governments or residents to block new housing. As a result, cities like Tokyo consistently approve enough new homes to match demand, even while their populations grow.
Canada’s fragmented and restrictive zoning rules — often at odds with population growth and climate goals — could benefit from this type of structural reform.
France would show how to activate public land at scale:
In France, government agencies are actively mapping, assembling, and offering up public land for housing development. But the process isn’t about offloading land quickly — it’s strategic, structured, and tied to housing outcomes.
The French government sets clear expectations for affordability, design, and environmental performance when releasing land, often using long-term leases or public-private partnerships to retain influence over the outcome. National and regional agencies coordinate with municipalities to align land disposition with housing targets, transit investments, and infrastructure planning.
Planning tools like pre-emption rights (where the city can step in and buy land or buildings before a private sale) give Paris leverage to direct development. These tools — combined with political will — have allowed the city to maintain affordability and social mix, even in central neighbourhoods. It’s a reminder that strong policy and strategic land use can make a difference, even where pressure is high.
Finland would show how long-term public ownership can deliver stability and results:
Finland is a global leader in addressing homelessness through its Housing First model, which treats housing as a basic human right. Instead of requiring people to “earn” housing through sobriety or employment, Finland provides stable housing first, and then adds support services. It has nearly eliminated chronic homelessness as a result.
But beyond homelessness, Finland also builds long-term affordable rental housing through municipally owned development companies. These companies reinvest profits into new construction, keeping supply growing and rents stable. It’s a model of public ownership with a long view — something many countries, including Canada, are starting to revisit.
Germany would highlight how balanced tenant protections support a healthy rental market:
In Germany, renting is the norm — not a stepping stone — and the system reflects that. Long-term leases, rent increase limits, and strong protections give renters stability and confidence. At the same time, landlords benefit from predictability and clear rules. The result is a rental market that’s both affordable and functional.
This stands in contrast to systems like Ontario’s, where tenant protections are often seen as one-sided and the enforcement mechanisms — like the Landlord and Tenant Board — are overwhelmed and slow. Germany shows that tenant protections can work when they’re part of a well-designed system that balances the needs of both renters and landlords, and when they’re supported by a broader housing strategy that includes supply, standards, and clarity.
Sweden would demonstrate how sustained public investment creates lasting affordability:
Sweden has a long history of treating housing as essential infrastructure. During the 20th century, the country launched the Million Programme, which built over a million homes in just a decade — many of which are still in use today. Even today, Sweden combines public land ownership, non-profit housing providers, and rental subsidies to maintain a broad stock of affordable, good-quality housing.
Crucially, Sweden integrates housing into long-term national planning, with coordination across all levels of government. It’s not without challenges — especially in high-demand cities — but it remains a democratic example of how public leadership can shape a more stable and inclusive housing system over time.
Canada would bring emerging models of public-private partnership:
Despite significant challenges, Canada is testing new ways for governments and the private sector to work together to deliver non-market and affordable housing. Recent federal programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) and the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) mark a shift in approach—moving beyond funding alone to tackle systemic barriers like zoning, timelines, and land availability.
The RHI, launched during the pandemic, focused on speed and targeted the most vulnerable populations, funding modular and converted buildings in record time. It demonstrated that with political will, funding, and streamlined processes, new homes could be delivered quickly. The HAF takes a broader, more structural approach: providing funding to municipalities that reform zoning bylaws, eliminating parking minimums, legalizing neighbourhood-scale density, and accelerating approvals — all conditions designed to enable more housing supply over time.
What’s still missing is scale, coordination, and long-term commitment. A G7 of Housing would help countries like Canada refine these tools and stay accountable to their ambitions.
Housing is a global crisis, so where’s the global response?
There’s no shortage of ideas or good examples. What’s missing is the political coordination to share, test, and scale them.
Imagine if housing ministers from each G7 country met annually —n ot to produce another report, but to compare results, learn from what’s working, and hold each other to account. Imagine if housing was treated not just as a domestic issue, but a shared global responsibility, like climate, health, or trade. Housing shapes our health, our economy, and our climate resilience. It deserves the same level of attention and international cooperation as any G7 topic.
Canada has the opportunity to lead — not just as host, but as a convener of something new. A G7 of Housing could be the start of a smarter, more coordinated, and more humane approach to one of the greatest challenges of our time.
Mayor of Burnaby Mike Hurley giving his State of the City address on May 12, 2025. / City of Burnaby, Facebook
Last week, Burnaby City Council passed a motion introduced by Mayor Mike Hurley requesting that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) call for the provincial government to repeal the single egress stairway change introduced last summer.
Prior to the change, buildings three storeys or higher were required to provide at least two egress stairways. The update to the BC Building Code, which came into effect on August 27, changed the regulation so that buildings up to six storeys are only required to provide a single egress stairway.
Housing advocates have said that the old requirement for a second stairway was a design constraint that limited potential building forms and required more land to be assembled for housing developments. While advocates argue that the requirement was from a different era and that safety measures and technology have substantially improved since then, opponents say the potential reward is uncertain and that the safety risk remains real.
Since the update to the BC Building Code came into effect, pushback has surfaced across British Columbia, including in Surrey, Richmond, and Vancouver, the latter of which is currently exploring potential adjustments before implementing the changes, after City staff recommended against implementing the changes.
Most of the pushback has been based on the opinions of emergency response professionals, such as the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters' Association (BCPFFA), the Fire Chiefs Association of BC (FCABC), the Greater Vancouver Fire Chiefs' Association (GVFCA), and the BC Police Association (BCPA), among others, whom Mayor Hurley cited in his motion.
The single egress stairway concept is "complex and should have been properly evaluated through the national code change process, ensuring thorough scrutiny and consideration of all implications" and the Province's adoption of the change "moved too quickly, did not have supporting data specific to the British Columbia context, and did not adequately consider all stakeholder concerns nor the latest Canadian data," said Hurley in his motion. (Burnaby's opposition was reported in September by Bryn Davidson of multiplex builder Lanefab.)
Hurley's opposition is not only noteworthy because he is the Mayor of one of the largest municipalities in British Columbia, but also because of his unique perspective on the issue. After immigrating from Northern Ireland to Vancouver in 1983, Hurley moved to Burnaby in 1988 and joined the Burnaby Fire Department that same year. He went on to hold positions including Driver, Technical Rescue Team Member, Hazardous Material Specialist, Instructor, Lieutenant, Captain, and Acting Assistant Chief, according to a biography on the City of Burnaby's website. He has also previously served as VP of the Burnaby Fire Fighters Association, President of the BCPFFA, and calls the Burnaby Fire Fighters Charitable Society his "second home."
Hurley's motion called on the UBCM to urge the Province to "immediately suspend the implementation of single exit stairway provisions until a review is completed, incorporating input from UBCM, BCPFFA, FCABC, and other stakeholders" and to "engage in a transparent consultation process with these groups to evaluate safety implications." Additionally, Hurley also wants the Province to conduct a comprehensive review of the BC Building Code amendments, with a focus on safety for the public and first-responders, people with disabilities, smoke inhalation fatalities, fire response capacity, risks in egress pathways, lithium-ion battery fire risk, and human movement research on evacuations, among other things.
"City governments, and in particular this Council, believe affordable housing is a critical concern for our communities, and I think we have proved that over and over again," said Hurley after introducing his motion during the regular council meeting on June 10. "But here, affordable housing should not mean unsafe housing. As we address the housing challenges, we still must do our homework to ensure we're not placing our citizens in a compromised safety position."
"Let me give you a local example of this," he added. "When I was on the fire department, we had a person going around the city lighting fires in fire exits and stairwells. That was their trademark. Let's say there was just one stairwell. How many people would have been compromised or killed in those incidents? This is a ridiculous suggestion by this government, for gaining very little."
Hurley punctuated his remarks with some barbs directed at the provincial government, saying that the Province continues to tell local governments that they know best. "I'm sorry, but they don't," he then said.
"I brought this forward because I truly believe this is a huge risk to public and firefighter safety, so I'm hoping that Council will support me to send this forward to UBCM," he concluded, before his motion was carried by Council. "Likely, this government won't listen, as they never do, but I think it's incumbent on us to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our residents."
After surging 30% month over month in April, the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts remained more or less flat between April and May with a 0.2% drop, as homebuilding in markets in Ontario and BC continued to weaken.
In the longer term, the six-month trend in housing starts also remained relatively flat in May, posting a 0.8% increase and hovering at 243,407 units, while actual housing starts grew 9% year over year, from 21,814 units last May to 23,745 units.
The data comes from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) latest housing starts report, and shows that May was a more subdued month compared to April when not only the SAAR of housing starts surged, but actual housing starts were up 17% year over year — the "highest actual housing starts for the month of April on record," according to CMHC.
As pointed out in an analysis from Desjardins Economist Kari Norman last month, however, April's high activity was an outlier compared to the previous four months and spoke more to "natural fluctuations of multi-unit starts and their reporting dates, rather than an indication of a turnaround in the sector," she wrote.
As expected, housing starts returned to more moderate levels in May, with gains driven by continued high activity in Quebec and the Prairie provinces, particularly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan where total housing starts grew by 209% and 206%, respectively, compared to May 2024.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
“Growth in actual starts activity in May was once again driven by increases of single-detached homes and purpose-built rentals in Québec and the Prairie provinces," said Tania Bourassa-Ochoa, CMHC’s Deputy Chief Economist. "By contrast, weak condominium market conditions in Toronto and Vancouver have contributed to significant declines in overall housing starts in these regions, in line with our recent analysis on these markets."
Looking at Canada's largest cities, the national growth was fuelled by an 11% year-over-year increase in actual housing starts in Montreal and pulled down by a 10% month-over-month decrease in Vancouver starts and a 22% year-over-year decrease in Toronto starts, both driven by lower multi-unit starts.
The recent CMHC analysis referenced by Bourassa-Ochoa looks at the current state of Toronto and Vancouver's condominium markets, highlighting plummeting sales, sliding prices, and ballooning inventory — all factors that have led to increased project cancellations and reduced construction activity.
For an overview, all condo sales (including resale, new, and pre-construction units) fell 75% in Toronto and 37% in Vancouver between mid-2022 and the end of Q1-2025. Slow sales, paired with record high condo apartment completions in 2024, led to steady inventory growth, which culminated in the current 58 months of inventory in Toronto and prices dropping 13.4% in Toronto and 2.7% in Vancouver between Q1-2022 and 2025.
On the construction front, the result has been five- and 10-fold increases in the number of condo project cancellations compared to 2022 in Toronto and Vancouver, respectively, and a consistent downtrend in multi-unit starts in the two major cities.
Monday's national housing starts data comes soon after the release of the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario's quarterly economic monitor, which analyses a number of economic indicators, such as employment and inflation, and also home sales and housing starts for the first quarter of 2025. Findings from the report point to continued strain in the Provinces' economy, with housing starts being no exception.
According to the report, "high construction costs and weak sales as households continue to face housing affordability challenges" have pushed provincial housing starts down 20.2% to 12,700 compared to the 15,900 units started in 2024-Q4, marking the "lowest level of housing starts since 2009."
Although Canadian housing markets didn’t get the bustling start to spring that lower interest rates at one point seemed to promise, new national data shows that May brought a slight rally in activity. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), sales edged up 3.6% between April and May, marking the first rise since November.
“May 2025 not only saw home sales move higher at the national level for the first time in more than six months, but prices at the national level also stopped falling,” said CREA Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart in a press release. To Cathcart’s point, the national composite home price index slipped just 0.2% month over month, “on the heels of three straight month-over-month declines of closer to 1%.”
“It’s only one month of data, and one car doesn’t make a parade, but there is a sense that maybe the expected turnaround in housing activity this year was just delayed for a few months by the initial tariff chaos and uncertainty,” Cathcart also said.
Without adjusting for seasonal effects, the composite index was down 3.5% over May 2024. While, without seasonal adjustment, the national average home price last month was $691,299, marking a 1.8% decline year over year.
On the supply front, CREA reports that there were 201,880 active listings on the MLS systems by the end of May, and that figure is up 13.2% year over year, but down 5% compared to the long-term average of around 211,500 listings for the month.
Meanwhile, the two metrics used to ascertain whether the market is in buyers’, sellers’, or balanced territory showed a slight shift in favour of sellers. For one, the sales-to-new-listings ratio was 47% in May, after coming in at 46.8% in April. By CREA’s definition, a ratio below 45% points to a buyers’ market, while a ratio above 65% suggests a sellers’ market. The long-term average for the metric is 54.9%.
The other indicator of market balance (or lack thereof) is months of inventory, and that metric clocked in at 4.9 months at the end of last month. CREA considers anything over 6.4 months to be a buyers’ market, and anything below 3.6 months to be sellers’ territory. The long-term average is five months of inventory.
Coming back to the national uptick in sales, CREA notes that it was led by activity in the Toronto Area, Calgary, and Ottawa. This is reflected in a recent report from RBC Economist Robert Hogue, which says that “the number of transactions partially rebounded from significant declines earlier this year” in those three markets, as well as in Edmonton, the Fraser Valley, Saskatoon, and Regina.
In his report, Hogue zeroes in on Calgary, where resales rebounded over 8% on a monthly basis in May, and Toronto, where resales rose 8.4%. However, also reflected in the report are the astronomical level of listings in some of these ‘rebounding markets,’ which is bound to temper any price growth and keep conditions buyer-friendly until the inventory can be absorbed.
Taking Toronto as an example, there were 21,819 new listings recorded in May — the highest level since March 2021 — and nearly 31,000 active listings — the highest level since at least August 2002.
This month, instead of diving into the usual data and policy rants, we’re shifting the focus to home buyers and renters themselves — exploring how demographics might offer new insights into the housing crisis.
In 2013, I stood on a real estate conference stage and made what felt like a long-range, maybe-even-foolhardy prediction: the Canadian housing market would crash in 2025.
A friend reminded me of this recently; it seemed, to him, like I had been right.
And in some ways, I suppose I was. Only, not for the reasons I had then thought.
At the time, I believed the housing market would buckle under the weight of Baby Boomers aging out. My thinking was simple: Boomers were the biggest, wealthiest generation in Canadian history. By 2025, the oldest among them would start dying off in significant numbers, unleashing a surge of supply into the market — which would finally pop the balloon.
That part? Dead wrong.
There’s been no great flood of listings (at least at the top end), no market crash, no sudden unlocking of supply of baby boomer homes. What we’re seeing instead is something slower, more structural, and ultimately harder to unwind. The collapse is happening at the wrong end: in the entry-level urban condo segment, where new inflow housing is needed.
My updated hypothesis is this: the housing market isn’t about to burst. It’s jammed.
Two Housing Systems, One Market
Let’s stop pretending there’s one housing crisis. There are two — one visible, one structural — and they’ve split the Canadian market in half.
Group A: The Housed and The Waiting
This group includes the Baby Boomers and many of their adult children. Boomers still control nearly half of Canada’s real estate wealth. Much of that wealth sits in mortgage-free, detached homes — often with two bedrooms too many and one resident too few.
Their kids, meanwhile, are often highly educated, steadily employed, and many still… living at home. In 2021, 35.1% of Canadians aged 20–34 lived with their parents, according to Statistics Canada. In Toronto and Vancouver, it’s closer to 50%. That stat spans the children of late Boomers and early Gen Xers — and includes people who are waiting not for an opportunity, but for an inheritance.
In other words, these Canadians aren’t locked out of housing — they’re just stuck in the hallway, waiting for the keys.
Group B: The Locked-Out
This group isn’t waiting for a family transfer. They’re just waiting for a chance.
They have no real estate legacy, no mortgage-free home to inherit, and increasingly no access to stable rental housing. These are the people priced out of homeownership and out of the supply-constrained affordable rental market. For them, there’s no fallback. No family basement. No wealth on the horizon.
This is where the real crisis lives. Because even the affordable housing that should serve this group — mid-tier rentals, starter homes, purpose-built housing — is half-filled with kids from Group A who are paying premiums to secure a home-base as they wait for their inheritance, and in the meantime, nothing new is getting built.
The Boomer Bottleneck
It’s tempting to blame the usual suspects: foreign buyers, rate hikes, developers, flippers. But today’s jammed-up market has a less obvious culprit: time itself.
They’re aging in place, staying in homes that would traditionally cycle back into the market when their kids moved out or when it came time for care. The majority of seniors live in single family homes. Although that number decreases with age, still at 85 and over, roughly the same number of seniors are living in a single family home as have moved to collective dwellings. In short, the family home has become a fortress of individual aging, not intergenerational mobility.
This isn’t about hoarding. It’s about design.
The infrastructure — and the will — simply isn’t there to support senior transitions:
Downsizing is fraught with costs, or is disincentivized
Long-term care is expensive and hard to access
Age-appropriate housing is in short supply
Capital gains exemptions make it financially illogical to sell, even if you want to
A boomer’s nostalgia and connection to home is far stronger than any external motivator
Meanwhile, Boomer wealth — once quietly funding rental property investments directly or through children — has gone into hibernation too. Policy shifts have villainized investors and disincentivized the very capital that used to build and finance rental supply. Now, that money sits in paid-off homes, underused and under-leveraged.
Turnover Is Coming — But Are We Ready?
The oldest Boomers turn 79 this year — and over the next five to ten years, many will surpass the Canadian life expectancy (79.3 years for men, 83.5 years for women).
So yes, the turnover I predicted is still coming. Just slower, and with a very different set of complications.
A 2023 report by the CPA (Canadian Professional Accountants) estimated over $1 trillion — made up largely by housing wealth — will transfer to younger generations by 2026. But that has not proven to be the silver bullet people thought it would be. Evidently, it could take even longer, as most of that transfer will happen slowly — via probate, trusts, delayed sales, or rental conversions — and will benefit only those already positioned to receive it.
In many cases, inherited homes aren’t even being lived in. They’re turned into short-term rentals, vacant investments, or they’re simply held onto. This does nothing for Group B — the people who were never going to inherit a thing, but need a place to live now.
Policy Paralysis and the Immigration Freeze
When affordability anger peaked in 2023 and 2024, the government responded by doing what looked like something: capping immigration through 2026, and cutting back on international students and temporary foreign workers.
The logic? Fewer people, less demand, lower prices.
The problem? That logic only works if you think the issue is too much demand. But the real issue might be zero turnover.
But if it’s an outflow issue, newcomers don’t compete for Boomer homes or their children’s inheritance. They rent. They fill purpose-built housing. They justify new starts and keep the rental economy viable by continuing to cycle new inventory into the system, which creates affordability around old inventory and smaller units. When you shrink immigration and discourage investors at the same time, you kill demand and stall construction at the inflow side of housing supply — and further entrap Group B, who can’t compete, on price, with Group A for the limited supply available.
So what’s left?
Boomers aren’t selling
Developers aren’t building
Immigrants aren’t arriving
Young adults aren’t buying
That’s not a housing bubble. That’s a housing coma.
What We Should Be Doing Instead
We don’t need to cool the market. We need to circulate it.
For Boomers:
Incentivize downsizing, don’t penalize it.
Reward the sale of legacy homes to developers creating density or reward the transfer — now — to adult children who will occupy it.
Expand age-appropriate housing, senior-focused co-housing, and community care transitions that seniors want.
Stop designing tax policy that traps wealth in underused homes, and certainly don’t try to unlock it with further tax disincentives that lead to deeper protectionism.
For Builders and Group B:
Reframe housing investors — especially those using Boomer capital — as partners, not predators.
Incentivize the mobilization of under utilized homes instead of trying to penalize it.
Re-link immigration targets with regional housing starts.
Stop forcing expensive age-in-place and accessibility building standards that make entry level projects unbuildable and further promote bottlenecks in supply turnover.
Plan for each part of the continuum, not for the plan that gets you the most votes.
Once you get the projects built, back Group B with downpayment and mortgage support that Group A gets from their boomer parents.
Final Thought: The Boomers Still Hold the Key — Until They Don’t
Boomers aren’t the villains here — they’re simply the gravitational centre of a system that was never updated. But as a cohort, they still control the flow of housing: through the homes they live in, the wealth they hold, and the policies shaped in their image.
That control won’t last forever. A massive transition is coming; in fact, maybe it has already begun. But it isn't happening fast enough.
The question is whether we can use this transition to unclog the system now — or allow a generational wealth transfer to deepen the divide between the housed and the hopeless.
The time to act isn’t after the turnover. It’s today, while we still have a chance to manage it.
This article is authored by Ben Smith, President of AVESDO: a Canadian software company harnessing the power of data to help real estate professionals make better, faster, and more informed sales decisions.
Welcome to Meet the Agent, an ongoing series profiling real estate agents from across Canada. With more than 150,000 agents, brokers, and salespeople working in 75 different boards and associations across the country, we thought it was about time they had a place to properly introduce themselves.
If you or someone you know deserves the same chance, email agents@storeys.com to apply.
THE DETAILS
Name: Justin Bregman
Areas of Focus: Toronto, York, Durham, Simcoe, Halton, and Peel
I always wanted to be a real estate agent. I went to university and while I was there, I was studying to get my real estate licence. I got my real estate licence when I was 21. I was working in sport broadcasting and helping many professional athletes and colleagues in the sport broadcasting world get rental properties before becoming a full-time realtor when I was 25.
In a few sentences, describe what a typical “day in the life” looks like for you.
A day in the life of Justin Bregman as a realtor is what I call organized chaos. I never expected the job to be like this, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I love what I do every day, and I love that every day is so different. A typical day is me getting up early and maybe going for a workout, going into the office to prospect, going out on showings with clients, prepping new listings to come to the markets, or working on offers sometimes way past midnight before resetting for the next day.
What’s the single best advice you have for sellers?
My best advice for sellers is do not overprice your home. There are many different pricing strategies to get your home sold for the highest amount of money, but pricing it too high is not the best way. Make sure to have a realtor working with you that knows the ins and outs of the market and is really in tune with world events, interest rate changes, and new comparable sales in the area. And make sure to price the property in line with market trends to get the absolute most amount of money for your home.
What’s the single best advice you have for buyers?
My best advice for buyers is to work with an agent that is extremely knowledgeable about the neighbourhood, the market, and negotiating on your behalf. There are so many things that go into buying a property and determining value, whether it's the neighbourhood, school district, the size of the lot, the size of the home, etc. Make sure that you're working with a realtor that can guide you through every part of the process and make sure that you can get the best deal and the best offer in comparison to the market value.
What made you choose to work for your current brokerage?
I currently work at RARE Real Estate and what made me choose RARE was the opportunities and platform that allows me to grow as a leader in the industry. This brokerage has an incredible staff and incredible support system, and it allows me as an agent to not only excel in my business, but allows everybody that works under me on my team to excel in theirs as well.
Is there anyone you recommend people should be paying attention to right now?
The people that are making the biggest waves in the industry are people that are honest, extremely hard-working, and delivering product knowledge and competitive advantages over any other realtors. A big part of this nowadays is social media as well as many other marketing initiatives to get your property seen and get it sold for top dollar.
What is one professional goal you have for the next year? What’s one that you have for the next 10 years?
My goal for this year is to continue to grow not only my success, but the success of my team. Over the course of the next 10 years my goal is to be the top listing agent in all of Toronto while managing a team and watching all of my hard work take effect with respect to the agents that work under me. I want to watch them grow and benefit and have a complete and successful partnership between myself and my team here in Toronto.
Tell us about your favourite (or most memorable) sale, and why it stands out to you.
103 Burncrest Drive is an amazing success story. I was listing on this property for just under two weeks and I had set the expectation with my clients that this property is not worth any more than $2.15 million. After the extensive marketing campaign, I was proud to present an offer to my clients for just over $2.2 million. It was a record-breaking price for the location and yet the clients refused to take this price as they wanted $2.3M. They took the listing off the market and relisted three months later with another agent, trying to get $2.3 million. I then represented the buyer and bought this home for $2.1 million! So my former clients took $2.1 million instead of the $2.2 million, still paying me a commission as the buyer’s agent. This is a great success for my buyer clients and a great lesson into understanding why it's so important to be working with a realtor that understands the value of a home. I had brought them an incredible record-breaking price for the home that they never took.
What are the three words you hope your clients use to describe you?
Three words that I hope my clients use to describe me are honest, loyal and dedicated. I am an extremely hard-working individual that goes above and beyond and will do whatever it takes to reach my clients’ goals.