Affordable housing on the prairie
It will be possible to buy a house in the steppe provinces.
The Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation has released a new report on the state of the housing market in the country. In the next 2-3 years, the most affordable housing can be bought in the Canadian Prairies. This prairie region includes three provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It extends to British Columbia, but that province is not included.
The report was published on April 27. It contains a forecast for the real estate market in 2023-2025. The data shows that there is a shortage of housing in Canada: the demand to buy more than the supply. This applies specifically to the purchase of their own house or apartment. There is no problem with renting, but Canadians want their own home.
Although home prices have fallen, they will be less affordable to buy because of high mortgage rates and low inflation. Before the end of 2022, the Bank of Canada consistently hiked interest rates to the current 4.5%. This has made big purchases less profitable and slowed overall consumer spending.
Toronto and Vancouver will be especially difficult to buy a home — the population of these cities is constantly growing, and they are also rich enough to afford to buy their own homes. It's not even the high prices: there are buyers lined up for every house for sale. Montrealers will also face problems.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba do best. They are followed by Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. Not only has the rate of new housing construction there not declined in 2023, it has even increased. In these provinces, apartment buildings and cottage communities are growing regularly. The average price of a home in these provinces is less than $470,000 CAD — that's budget-friendly by Canadian standards.
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