Seniors not often downsize — this is why that is hurting first-time homebuyers



By Craig Lord

From the surface, that may appear like the pure development: feeding a wholesome little bit of turnover into the housing provide as move-up consumers search their very own household dwelling.

However the actuality is a bit totally different when it comes time to promote, Lebow, who works within the Higher Toronto Space, mentioned in an interview.

“Our clients are usually not all the time completely satisfied clients,” he mentioned. “Nearly all seniors don’t need to transfer.”

Specialists say it’s a delusion that seniors who personal their houses are eager to downsize to fund their retirements, when the truth is that they’re largely staying put, partly as a result of they don’t just like the downsizing choices, making it more durable for younger potential consumers to interrupt into the housing market.

Seniors are in truth the demographic that’s least prone to transfer, in response to information from the 2016 census.

“It’s truly 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 kind of older Canadian who’s eager to money out on the household dwelling, 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 return throughout seniors with three- or four-bedroom homes and no youngsters at dwelling to fill them anymore. More room than they want, in all chance, however no motivation to let it go.

“Shifting is a traumatic expertise,” Lebow mentioned, whether or not it’s the monetary price or the emotional toll of adjusting addresses and purging years of collected belongings.

Past the standard dwelling showings and paperwork, his job has ranged from rehoming a pet canine who couldn’t be accommodated in a brand new abode to appearing as de facto mediator when the prospect of mother or dad downsizing turns into a tense household battle.

A few of his purchasers 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 dwelling.

“Imagine 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 remains 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.

Knowledge from CMHC signifies the “promote charge”— 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 also be in higher monetary form as they grow old, the company mentioned, letting them age in place.

“To ensure that them to go away, they would wish one thing that met their wants as a lot. And sometimes, 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 current neighbourhoods, however smaller choices are usually not available.

Fashionable infill models arrange for street-level entry in older, residential neighbourhoods are the sorts of choices many seniors want to provide shifting a second thought.

The sort of sixplex-unit zoning just lately up for debate at Toronto metropolis council would create the sorts of models that will 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.

Shifting homes can also be costly in terms of hiring movers, staging prices and the myriad of taxes and costs for actual property brokers and attorneys.

Measures to scale back the tax burden seniors face when shifting will 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, nevertheless it solely applies to first-time homebuyers.

Moffatt mentioned it will “completely” assist enhance provide within the housing market if that coverage have been prolonged to downsizing seniors. Such a transfer might 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 available in the market: Moffatt defined that when move-up consumers 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 consumers.

The Canadian Press reached out to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to ask if the federal authorities would think about 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 consumers 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 boundaries to constructing housing throughout the board advantages everybody,” Moffatt mentioned.

“It’s sort of an irony, however the most effective issues we will do to assist first-time homebuyers is to make it simpler for seniors to maneuver into new housing.”

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Final modified: July 25, 2025

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