Canadian Home Prices Cool Off, and Home Sales Remain Flat

This week’s top real estate stories.

By Jared Lindzon | 2 minute read

Every Friday, Wahi brings you the most important real estate stories from the past week. 

A Late Spring for Home Prices

The temperature may be warming in Canada, but home prices appear to be cooling. According to the RPS-Wahi House Price Index, home prices increased by a modest 2% in April of 2025 compared to April 2024, down from 3% in March and 4% in February. While condos and apartments saw a steep 6% drop in value since last April, they were balanced out by a 2% increase in row and townhouse values, and a 4% increase in detached home prices. The semi-detached home segment, meanwhile, saw no price change over the last 12 months. 

Leveling the Housing Field

The rest of Canada is gradually catching up with the country’s most populous provinces. That’s because, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, seasonally adjusting housing construction was up a whopping 30% country-wide in April, after falling 12.5% annualized in March, despite plummeting 31% in Ontario and 22% in B.C. compared to this time last year. Housing starts, meanwhile, are up 94% in Saskatchewan, 55% in Quebec, and 47% in Newfoundland. Among the country’s biggest cities, housing starts are down 52% in Toronto so far this year, and 25% in Vancouver, but jumped 82% in Montreal.

Murky Inflation Data Clouds Interest Rate Decision

Unemployment is way up, inflation is way down, meaning the Bank of Canada is cleared to resume cutting interest rates, right? RIGHT?! Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Despite a jump in unemployment, which hit its highest non-pandemic level since 2017 in April, and a slowdown in the Consumer Price Index, which dropped from 2.3% in March to 1.7% in April, experts fear a return to rate cutting isn’t a given. That’s because despite the positive “headline,” core inflation — which removes energy prices from the equation — jumped 2.9% last month, up from 2.5% in March, driven by higher grocery costs. 

Home Sales Stay Mercifully Flat  

Canada’s housing market has stopped the bleeding despite the festering wound south of the border. After four straight months of declines, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported home sales didn’t get any worse in April, though they didn’t get any better, either. Following a 4.8% month-over-month drop in March, and a 20% drop from last November, sales declined just 0.1% in April. Now the agency says demand is “hovering around levels seen during the second half of 2022, and the first and third quarters of 2023,” which is pretty good for a country in the middle of a trade war. 

Why Bay Street Makes a Terrible Landlord 

If you’re going to rent a property in Toronto, it’s best to sign with someone with a pulse. That’s because, according to a new study by University of Waterloo researchers, “financial landlords” — corporations like private equity firms, REITs and asset managers — charge 44% above neighbourhood averages, or about $670 more per month. According to the study, institutions have become the largest acquirers of rental property in Toronto over the last two decades and have raised rent prices faster than any other type of landlord in the city. That’s especially true in marginalized communities, where they charge nearly 50% more.

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