The real estate market in Canada is constantly adapting, with continuous changes in home ownership levels and interest in the rental market. In the article we reveal all of the latest real estate statistics of 2021, including which parts of Canada are most interested in purchasing new properties and whether rentals or home ownership is most popular at the moment.
Canada Real Estate Statistics: The Short Version
If you’re looking for the quick version, we’ve summarised our key findings here:
- Average house prices in Canada are $716,000 as of March 2021.
- Nova Scotia is experiencing a surge in interest, with the term “Houses for sale Nova Scotia” being searched for over 10,000 times a month in Canada alone.
- Canadians appear to be keen to purchase a property in New Brunswick, with the term “houses for sale” being searched more in this province than any other part of Canada.
- The home ownership rate in Canada was at 68.5% as of 2018.
Real Estate in Canada: Buy or Rent?
We conducted a keyword analysis using KWFinder and discovered that there are on average 98,800 searches per month for the term “houses for sale” in Canada. In comparison, the number of searches for “houses to rent” are much lower, averaging at 43,200 searches per month.
This is reflective of the demand for rental properties alongside home ownership as the search terms display specific intent as well as the fact that as of 2018, the home ownership rate in Canada was 68.55%.
What are the Most Popular Types of Housing on the Market?
From our keyword analysis, we found that unsurprisingly “house” is the most popular search term in Canada with 89,600 average searches per month. This was then followed by Cottages and Cabins, generating 37,700 and 21,700 searches per month respectively. The least popular based on search results was flats, amassing 7,200 searches per month on average.
How Many First Time Buyers are there in Canada?
Purchasing your first home is an extremely exciting prospect for many, but just how many first time buyers are there in Canada at the moment? Our research found that:
- The term “Canadian first time home buyer” is searched an average of 8,200 times per month in Canada. It’s highly likely that the vast majority of people searching for this incentive are looking into purchasing their first property.
- The province with the highest proportion of these searches (based on proportion to population size) is Alberta (6.32 searches per 10,000 people), followed by Saskatchewan (5.51) and Manitoba (5.14).
- The term “Canadian first time home buyer” is searched the least in Quebec, with only 0.35 searches for every 10,000 people.
What are the Average House Prices in Canada in 2021?
Average house prices in Canada have increased in the past year from $544,000 in 2020 to $716,000 in 2021 which is an increase of 31.6%. We also explored the highest housing prices in Canada and here is what we found:
- British Columbia has the highest priced housing on average in Canada, with the average price being $946,000.
- On the other hand, New Brunswick has the lowest average property prices at $253,000 even though over the past year, property prices have increased in the area by the highest percentage of any province in Canada (32%).
- The only province which has seen a reduction in average property price over the past 12 months is the Northwest Territories which have experienced a 2.59% decline from $450,000 to $439,000.
Which Parts of Canada Want to Move Out the Most?
To discover which area searches the most frequently in proportion to their population size for “houses for sale”, we analysed the number of searches per every 10,000 people in the ten most populous provinces in Canada. Here are our findings:
- People in New Brunswick appear to be most keen to buy a new property at the moment, as the search term “houses for sale” is searched more here than any other Canadian province.
- This is then followed by those in Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador and British Columbia.
- People living in Quebec conduct the fewest proportion of searches for the term “houses for sale” compared with the rest of the country.
Which Part of Canada Wants to Rent the Most in 2021?
We also analysed interest in rentals, investigating which areas search for “houses to rent” most in proportion to their respective population sizes. Here is what we found:
- People in Ontario appear to be most interested in finding property to rent, as Ontario has the highest proportion of searches for “houses to rate”.
- Similarly to our findings based on “houses to buy”, Quebec also searches the least proportionally for “houses to rent” with just 1,900 average monthly searches, equating to approximately 2.21 searches amongst every 10,000 people.
Surging Demand in Atlantic Canada
We conducted a keyword analysis with the tool KWFinder to discover the current most popular areas for real estate in Canada. We did this by checking the search volumes for the phrase “Houses in x” with “x” being the province in question. Her are our findings:
As you can see from the chart, Nova Scotia is the most popular real estate market in 2021, with an average of 10,100 searches per month for the term ‘Houses in Nova Scotia’. The chart below shows the increase in searches for housing in the area over the last 5 years. As you can see, search volumes have increased significantly over the last year and a half, which may be due to Nova Scotia’s low cost of housing since the rise in people working from home.
“Rural communities are experiencing a massive surge in demand due to more flexible working arrangements and high prices in the major cities” says Canada-based mortgage broker, Alan Harder. “The Coronavirus pandemic has caused a huge shift in the Canadian economy and housing market, so it’ll be interesting to see how the popularity of certain areas changes in a post-pandemic world”.
Nova Scotia is then followed by Prince Edward Island and Ontario with 8,700 and 6,900 searches per month respectively. Notably, the search volumes for housing in Prince Edward Island are particularly high as the population of the province is only roughly 150,000 people. This implies that if search volumes remain consistent, in a 2 year period there will be more searches for housing on Prince Edward Island than there are people who live there, highlighting the desirability of the area.
The province which generates the lowest volume of searches for housing is the Northwest Territories, only generating 20 searches per month on average. This was then followed by Newfoundland & Labrador, Yukon and British Columbia with 570, 760 and 930 searches respectively. Quebec was the 5th least searched for which is surprising as it is the second most populated province in Canada.
A Summary of Real Estate in Canada
All in all, a large proportion of housing in Canada is owned, with the highest average prices being in British Columbia and the lowest in New Brunswick. Nova Scotia is generating the most searches for housing when compared to other provinces.
We hope this article has helped you better understand the real estate landscape in Canada, and if you’re thinking about buying a property, we wish you the very best of luck.
