Population growth, lack of inventory put stress on real estate market “Unprecedented” population pressures from immigration and interprovincial migration are “dramatically reshaping” the country’s conventional and luxury real estate market, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada reports. “In the last three years, Canada has added 2.8 million new homebuyers to our marketplace,” says president and CEO Don Kottick.
“We’ve had a decade-long chronic shortage of housing inventory relative to our population so the addition of these buyers looking for real estate is putting a lot of stress on the market right across the country.” All major Census Metropolitan Areas saw their fastest growth since 2001–2002 in the year ending July 1, 2023, according to the most recent Statistics Canada data. Calgary led the charge with a 5.
9 per cent growth, followed by Edmonton and Vancouver at 4.1 per cent, Toronto at 3.3 per cent and Montreal at 2.
9 per cent. But immigration only tells part of the story. “The migration of residents, and their talent and financial capital away from cities like Toronto and Vancouver to communities in surrounding regions or to provinces such as Alberta foreshadow trends in sales activity, housing prices and real estate market performance,” Kottick says.
According to Sotheby’s Top-Tier Real Estate: 2024 Mid-Year State of Luxury Report, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) luxury real estate market remained balanced in the first half of 2024. “To.