Canadians want to live near the city core rather than the suburbs and that’s driving the housing market.
Canadians want to live near the city core rather than the suburbs and that’s driving the housing market. That’s one of the key findings of a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute. The study says that Canadians are more than happy to trade space for convenience; choosing to live downtown to be close to shops, leisure facilities and workplaces rather than the more spacious property they could afford in the suburbs. Much of this trend is down to young families who are choosing to be where the action is rather than the inconvenience of a commute to work and school. Suburban land is often hard to find or comes at a premium whereas downtown building continues to grow. The report does question what this increased density downtown will mean in the future; will all these families look to move out to suburbs later in life or will they continue to live in smaller downtown locations? For 2015, PwC believes that there will be an increase in mixed-use developments and that Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver will see the largest residential market growth. Read the full story.
