Roughly three out of every 10 residential homes in Canada are owned by individuals who own multiple properties, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Multiple-property owners hold properties to receive rental income or for other investment purposes. This can include recreational properties, which may also provide rental income.
“Individual multiple-property owners hold a significant share of the residential property stock, despite accounting for a relatively small number of owners,” StatCan notes.
This is especially true in Nova Scotia, where multiple-property owners made up 22% of all owners in the province in 2020, but held 41% of the province’s property stock. In B.C., they represent 15% of owners and held 29% of property, and in Ontario they represent 15.1% of owners and held 31.1% of property.
“Owners seeking additional properties contribute to increased competition in already tight real estate markets, making it more difficult for prospective homeowners to purchase a home,” the report noted, while adding that the overall impact on house prices and affordability wasn’t fully assessed.
The data found businesses, government and other entities comprised 1.6% (Ontario) and 2.1% (New Brunswick) of owners and owned between 7.6% (Ontario) and 10% (B.C.) of the property stock.
Housing inequalities unveiled
The report also explored inequalities in housing, finding that the top 10% of owners based on annual income earn more than the bottom 50% combined.
In Ontario and B.C., the top 10% of owners reported incomes above $125,000.
When ordering individual owners by the value of their real estate holdings, the top 10% of individual owners owned:
- 24% of the sum of all residential property values in New Brunswick
- 25% in Nova Scotia
- 28% in Ontario
- 29% in B.C.
real estate investors real estate market report statistics canada
Last modified: April 12, 2022
I dislike these One-Sided facts that take aim at all multi property owners. What never never get’s mentioned are the landlords that provide relatively low income housing. If my wife and I sold our 5 rentals a displaced 10 tenants to make the market more affordable, tell me what happens to those 10 tenants today. Where do they go? They pay $500,$650, $900, $1050, and an whole 3 bedroom Semi got $1225. We to consider existing tenants when having these conversations.
Someone’s feeling guilty
I agree with Steve S. I don’t know what location you own these 5 properties, but in the GTA, the rents would range from a minimum of $1,200.00 for a basement apartment to $2,800.00 per month for a semi-detached in the GTA. Homeownership carrying costs would be higher than these rents.
It creates less supply for people buying. The arguments that these ‘landlords’ are supplying rental properties is farce as it takes away from individuals who are trying to own their own dwelling and due to less supply (that is sucked up by these multiple owning properties), jacks up prices.
The real impact of the rising interest rate hopefully will be on these multiple property owners, and hopefully they will be forced to liquidate ‘some’ of their properties.
They already made a lot of money in appreciation, so they should be happy still.