By Craig Lord
From the surface, which may seem like the pure development: feeding a wholesome little bit of turnover into the housing provide as move-up patrons search their very own household residence.
However the actuality is a bit completely different when it comes time to promote, Lebow, who works within the Higher Toronto Space, mentioned in an interview.
“Our clients aren’t all the time completely happy clients,” he mentioned. “Virtually all seniors don’t need to transfer.”
Consultants say it’s a delusion that seniors who personal their houses are eager to downsize to fund their retirements, when the fact is that they’re largely staying put, partially as a result of they don’t just like the downsizing choices, making it more durable for younger potential patrons to interrupt into the housing market.
Seniors are in reality the demographic that’s least prone to transfer, in keeping with knowledge from the 2016 census.
“It’s really fairly uncommon,” mentioned Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Lacking Center Initiative on the College of Ottawa.
Lebow mentioned that when seniors do transfer, it’s actually because they’re going through mobility or cash points — or each.
He acknowledged there’s a sort of older Canadian who’s eager to money out on the household residence, transfer right into a smaller apartment or condo and tackle a brand new life-style. However these are the unicorns, he mentioned.
In his work, it’s frequent to come back throughout seniors with three- or four-bedroom homes and no youngsters at residence to fill them anymore. Extra space than they want, in all probability, however no motivation to let it go.
“Transferring is a traumatic expertise,” Lebow mentioned, whether or not it’s the monetary price or the emotional toll of fixing addresses and purging years of amassed belongings.
Past the everyday residence showings and paperwork, his job has ranged from rehoming a pet canine who couldn’t be accommodated in a brand new abode to performing as de facto mediator when the prospect of mother or dad downsizing turns into a tense household battle.
A few of his shoppers are additionally going through cognitive decline, Lebow mentioned, and solely see their actual property agent because the man attempting to throw them out of their residence.
“Consider me, I’ve been yelled at,” Lebow mentioned.
A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report from November 2023 additionally discovered that whereas there was a little bit of a shift towards downsizing as Canadians age, that pattern continues to be restricted to a minority of older households.
There’s additionally minimal motion to condos or rental properties as Canadians age, the report discovered.
Information from CMHC signifies the “promote price”— the proportion of Canadians older than 75 who’re cashing out of the housing market — fell steadily between 1991 and 2021.
Canadians reside longer and may additionally be in higher monetary form as they become older, the company mentioned, letting them age in place.
“To ensure that them to depart, they would want one thing that met their wants as a lot. And infrequently, that doesn’t exist,” Moffatt mentioned.
Among the many largest components motivating — or hindering — a transfer are price and life-style, he mentioned.
Many seniors nonetheless need to have the ability to backyard and host household over the vacations, he mentioned, which makes a one-or-two bed room apartment within the downtown core unappealing.
Moffatt mentioned many older Canadians are eager to remain of their present neighbourhoods, however smaller choices aren’t available.
Trendy infill models arrange for street-level entry in older, residential neighbourhoods are the sorts of choices many seniors want to offer transferring a second thought.
The type of sixplex-unit zoning lately up for debate at Toronto metropolis council would create the sorts of models that may be proper for a lot of would-be downsizers, Moffatt famous.
Toronto finally determined final month to broaden sixplex zoning to just some wards, leaving the others to decide in in the event that they select.
Transferring homes can also be costly with regards to hiring movers, staging prices and the myriad of taxes and charges for actual property brokers and legal professionals.
Measures to scale back the tax burden seniors face when transferring might help to encourage extra turnover of household houses, Moffatt mentioned.
The Liberal authorities tabled laws in Could to waive the federal GST on new houses, but it surely solely applies to first-time homebuyers.
Moffatt mentioned it might “completely” assist enhance provide within the housing market if that coverage had been prolonged to downsizing seniors. Such a transfer may sweeten the deal for seniors who’re open to getting right into a smaller apartment unit however don’t see the monetary worth within the transfer.
That might spur a constructive domino impact out there: Moffatt defined that when move-up patrons are in a position to go away behind their starter houses to tackle seniors’ bigger properties, that opens up extra provide on the backside of the housing ladder for first-time patrons.
The Canadian Press reached out to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to ask if the federal authorities would contemplate increasing the GST rebate to seniors.
A Finance Canada spokesperson didn’t point out seniors of their response, solely saying in an e-mail that the GST rebate is supposed to assist first-time patrons enter the housing market by decreasing upfront prices to purchasing a house and spurring the development of latest housing throughout Canada.
“Incentivizing or lowering the limitations to constructing housing throughout the board advantages everybody,” Moffatt mentioned.
“It’s type of an irony, however top-of-the-line issues we are able to do to assist first-time homebuyers is to make it simpler for seniors to maneuver into new housing.”
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CMHC downsizing François-Philippe Champagne homebuying trends Mike Moffatt Missing Middle Initiative real estate market retirement seniors The Canadian Press
Final modified: July 25, 2025
