Covid-19 has left many millennials working from home — and now some of them are thinking of buying a home because of the pandemic.
A new poll commissioned by Scotiabank found that respondents aged 18–34 were the most optimistic about buying a home in light of the pandemic. Almost one-fifth (18%) said Covid-19 had accelerated their plans to buy a home or investment property.
Low interest rates were the main factor driving respondents’ plans to buy a home, the poll said.
But many millennials believe that now may not be the right time to jump into the market. According to the poll, 32% of millennials are waiting for house prices to drop before they make a move to buy.
Millennials were more likely than other respondents to believe that house prices will fall. Thirty-six per cent said house prices would come down, compared to 24% of respondents aged 35–54 and 17% of respondents 55 and older.
Most renters aren’t considering getting into the housing market anytime soon, Scotiabank said. The poll found that 77% of respondents who rent have no plans of purchasing a new home in the next year or two.
The 2020 Scotiabank Housing Poll was conducted by Maru Blue on Aug. 24. The online poll surveyed 1,509 respondents across Canada. Online polls can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.