A significant share of households in major Canadian cities are mortgage-free
As many as half of Vancouver’s households do not have mortgages, the highest such share nationwide, according to Andy Yan of Simon Fraser University’s City Program.
Analysing census data of cities with populations exceeding 100,000 residents, Yan found that fully 47% of households in Saanich, Vancouver Island do not have mortgages. Burnaby and Richmond came close behind with 45% mortgage-free households, while Surrey had the most mortgages in British Columbia with only 32% of households being mortgage-free.
Other major cities — including Toronto (43%), Kelowna (42%), and Calgary (35%) — also had a considerable number of households without mortgages, Yan said.
The most mortgaged city in Canada was in Ontario, with only 21% of Milton’s households being mortgage-free.
“Housing in BC and other parts of Canada is a story of both abundance and famine,” Yan told The Globe and Mail. “This data highlights how some are home free, while others are locked out of the housing market. It’s a story of haves, have-nots and have-mores.”
Nationwide, the share of households who owned their own homes declined from 69% to 66.5% over a 10-year period, according to Census 2021 data.
This was supported by a recently released Statistics Canada report, which showed that the share of investors among Canadian homeowners increased during the decade ending October 2020. This proportion ranged from 20.2% in Ontario to 31.5% in Nova Scotia, with Manitoba (20.4%), BC (23.3%), and New Brunswick (29%) also exhibiting strong investor presence.
