First-time homebuyers across Canada are seeing home ownership as less elusive than it was — but, even so, many are hoping that family and friends will help them pay for a big chunk of the cost, according to a new report from Toronto-based BMO Financial Group.
More than one-quarter of Canadians are looking for a contribution of between $5,000 and $50,000 from family and friends, and over 10% are hoping for a gift of $100,000 or more. Millennials, on average, are hoping for $61,431 and Gen X for $43,400, the survey found.
“Up against external headwinds, parents and family members are being asked to help first-time buyers enter the real estate market. While a financial gift can help, a home financing solution that fits a homebuyer’s budget is equally important,” Hassan Pirnia, head, personal lending and home financing products, BMO Bank of Montreal, said in a statement. “It comes down to ensuring that the homebuyer can sustain the costs of homeownership on their own.”
Of respondents looking to purchase a home in the next year, 42% said the housing market is affordable. But, at the same time, more than a third said they plan to share the financial responsibility with someone else to ease affordability.
And when it comes to affordability, sentiment varies across the country. First-time buyers in Atlantic Canada are more likely to see the market as affordable (62%), as are Albertans (58%), but first-time buyers in Ontario and B.C. don’t share the same optimism (respectively, 32% and 34% see the market as affordable). According to data from BMO Economics, six out of 11 of Canada’s larger cities are currently buyer’s markets (Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Vancouver and Victoria).
Nearly 40% of survey respondents said they’d be more likely to get a fixed-rate mortgage due to rising rates.