By Craig Lord
From the surface, that may appear to be the pure development: feeding a wholesome little bit of turnover into the housing provide as move-up patrons search their very own household house.
However the actuality is a bit totally different when it comes time to promote, Lebow, who works within the Higher Toronto Space, stated in an interview.
“Our prospects usually are not at all times completely happy prospects,” he stated. “Nearly all seniors don’t need to transfer.”
Consultants say it’s a fable that seniors who personal their properties 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 tougher for younger potential patrons to interrupt into the housing market.
Seniors are actually the demographic that’s least prone to transfer, in response to knowledge from the 2016 census.
“It’s really fairly uncommon,” stated Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Lacking Center Initiative on the College of Ottawa.
Lebow stated 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 house, transfer right into a smaller rental or house and tackle a brand new way of life. However these are the unicorns, he stated.
In his work, it’s frequent to come back throughout seniors with three- or four-bedroom homes and no youngsters at house to fill them anymore. More room than they want, in all probability, however no motivation to let it go.
“Transferring is a traumatic expertise,” Lebow stated, whether or not it’s the monetary value or the emotional toll of adjusting addresses and purging years of accrued belongings.
Past the standard house 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 stated, and solely see their actual property agent because the man making an attempt to throw them out of their house.
“Imagine me, I’ve been yelled at,” Lebow stated.
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 development 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.
Information 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 live longer and may additionally be in higher monetary form as they become older, the company stated, letting them age in place.
“To ensure that them to depart, they would wish one thing that met their wants as a lot. And infrequently, that doesn’t exist,” Moffatt stated.
Among the many largest elements motivating — or hindering — a transfer are value and way of life, he stated.
Many seniors nonetheless need to have the ability to backyard and host household over the vacations, he stated, which makes a one-or-two bed room rental within the downtown core unappealing.
Moffatt stated many older Canadians are eager to remain of their current neighbourhoods, however smaller choices usually are not available.
Fashionable infill models arrange for street-level entry in older, residential neighbourhoods are the sorts of choices many seniors want to present shifting a second thought.
The sort of sixplex-unit zoning not too long ago up for debate at Toronto metropolis council would create the sorts of models that might be proper for a lot of would-be downsizers, Moffatt famous.
Toronto in the end determined final month to broaden sixplex zoning to just some wards, leaving the others to choose in in the event that they select.
Transferring 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 cut back the tax burden seniors face when shifting will help to encourage extra turnover of household properties, Moffatt stated.
The Liberal authorities tabled laws in Might to waive the federal GST on new properties, but it surely solely applies to first-time homebuyers.
Moffatt stated it will “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 rental unit however don’t see the monetary worth within the transfer.
That might spur a optimistic domino impact out there: Moffatt defined that when move-up patrons are capable of depart behind their starter properties 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 take into account 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 reducing upfront prices to purchasing a house and spurring the development of recent housing throughout Canada.
“Incentivizing or lowering the limitations to constructing housing throughout the board advantages everybody,” Moffatt stated.
“It’s sort of an irony, however probably the greatest 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
