First-Time Buyers Entering Housing Market Faster, and Toronto Home Sales Down for Seventh Consecutive Month

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. 

Getting to Buy with a Little Help

Like a game of Monopoly, the winners of Canada’s housing market are usually those who draw the inheritance card. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2025 Mortgage Consumer Survey, more first-time buyers are entering the housing market faster thanks in large part to family help. According to the survey, 41% used a gift or inheritance to cover mortgage costs, up from 30% last year, averaging nearly $80,000. More than half also purchased with someone other than a spouse or romantic partner, typically a co-signing parent. Even 20% of second-time buyers got financial help, and their gifts averaged $103,382.   

When a “Market Crash” Would Be an Improvement 

New home sales are so bad in Toronto they make a market crash look like a sales bonanza. According to a new report by the Building Industry and Land Development Association,  new home sales were down in April for the seventh consecutive month, with just 310 changing hands across the GTA. That’s 72% less than last April and 89% below the 10-year average, which usually sees 2,750 new homes sold across the region in April. Even during the city’s last major housing crash, which lasted from about 1989 to 1996, new home sales were about double what they are today.

You Get What You Pay for in Canadian Cities 

Canadian cities may feature some of the world’s most expensive housing markets, but they’re also some of the best places to live. That’s not just our biased opinion, either; Toronto just ranked 20th on Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index for 2025, while Vancouver placed 37th, Montreal 43rd, and Calgary 61st. Even Ottawa cracked the top 100, landing in 88th. The annual ranking considers factors like economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. Top spots went to New York, London and Paris, but Canada’s three biggest cities outranked global destinations like Madrid, Miami, Dubai and Prague.

Aging in Place, Mortgage and All  

In this housing market, homes are cashing cheques long after their inhabitants. According to a report by Royal LePage record numbers of Canadians are carrying mortgage debt into their golden years. According to the survey, 29% of those retiring this year or next will continue paying down their home, up from 14% in 2016 and 8% in 1999. The survey found that nearly half — and even more in Quebec and Ontario — plan to remain in their current home rather than downsizing. Canadians are also retiring slightly later, at an average age of 65.3 years, up from 64.3 in 2020.   

Home Sales are Down; Mortgage Sales are Up  

Canadians aren’t shopping for new homes, but they are shopping for new mortgages. According to a new report by Equifax Canada, mortgage originations were up 57.7% in the first quarter, driven by renewals and refinancing. In fact, 28% of borrowers in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. switched lenders at renewal, nearly half of whom moved from one Big Five bank to another, suggesting competition is heating up during “the great renewal.” The report also found that mortgage delinquencies rose 71.5% in Ontario, from 0.14% last year to 0.24%, representing the most missed payments since Equifax began tracking the data in 2012.

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