According to a new poll from the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), 4 in 10 Ontario parents helped their adult child (aged 18 – 38) with the purchase of their first home. Of those, 44 per cent said they dipped into their general savings to provide the support, while 15 per cent said they borrowed from their retirement savings or investments.
“Parents are becoming increasingly worried that their children may not be able to achieve the dream of home ownership, so they are pulling out all the stops to help them get their foot in the market,” said OREA CEO Tim Hudak. “Ontario’s parents have seen first-hand the benefits of homeownership on neighbourhoods: it fosters vibrant and stable communities, improves quality of life, and has been the bulwark of Canada’s middle class for generations, so it is not surprising that they want the same for their children.”
The average sum loaned was $40,878, while the average some gifted was $73,605. Meanwhile, 90 per cent of respondents said they recognize it is more difficult to buy a residential property today compared to when they were in their 20s, citing high housing prices (88%) as the main reason.
“We are in a housing affordability crisis being driven by severe lack of supply, and increased demand, especially around ‘missing middle’ type properties,” said Hudak. “Without meaningful action at all levels of government, Ontario’s millennials and young families will be forced to look outside the province for their first home, leading to brain drain and negatively impacting our economic competitiveness. To bring affordability home for young Ontarians, we need to be continually increasing housing supply and choice in the market across the province.”
While Ontario has drastically improved the number of new housing starts it reached in 2021 with nearly 100,000 starts (its hightest in two decades), 76 per cent of those polled said they want to see further political emphasis on housing affordability.
Recently, the Ontario Government’s Housing Affordability Task Force recommended that the province aim to build 1.5 million homes in the next decade by increasing density in urban and suburban areas, as well as updating the development approvals process employed by municipalities.
Visit Housing Affordability in Ontario: Perceptions, Impacts, And Solutions (Wave 2) report for more information.
