Canada Sees Record Immigration - Possible Effects On Housing Market

The year 2022 has seen a huge surge in the number of new permanent residents in Canada, which has been at its all-time high. The arrival of new people in such big numbers also means that the housing market will be impacted as these people would need housing i.e. a place to stay and call their own and hence, these people would be the potential new buyers in the market. As per the federal immigration minister Sean Fraser, in 2022, 431,000 new permanent residents have arrived in Canada. These numbers have been predicted to rise even further in 2024 and in 2025. And a rise in population always has a positive effect on housing, usually. Housing demand is bound to go up in areas in Canada where higher immigration levels are witnessed. It comes as no surprise then that Toronto is among the top destinations in Canada for immigrants to come and settle with 115,775 new permanent residents coming to settle in the city in 2022. This is the data as per Immigration and Citizenship Canada. Though this number is slightly lower compared to 2021's 142,775, Toronto will keep benefitting from the immigration. Impact of high immigration numbers on the housing supply Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation have hinted previously that the starts or the start of construction on a new residential housing unit for Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, are poised to fall short of the targets set for 2030. The national housing agency further indicated that these those provinces along with Alberta would only have as much labour capacity as is needed to raise the number of housing starts by between about 30% and 50%. Though this situation is indicative of a housing supply crisis in the long term, the housing market is definitely poised for a boom after the lull of the past year. How things pan out remains to be seen as higher rates of interest are bound to impact people. But on the other hand, it is imminent that the new lot of people or immigrants coming in would be able to absorb some of the mortgage costs and ease the situation. If you are new to the housing market of Canada and need a guiding hand on any aspect related to buying a house and mortgage-related issues or questions, do contact us at LendX Financial in Brampton, Greater Toronto Area.