Housing in Canada: Buying, Renting and the Housing Market

This section covers housing in Canada from both sides of the lease or the deed: what it takes to buy a first home, how a purchase works from offer to closing, what homes and rents cost in each city, and the analysis behind the headlines on affordability and supply. Mortgages themselves, from rates to qualifying, have their own mortgages section.

Home prices and the housing market

The Canadian housing market reports open with the national snapshot from the Canadian Real Estate Association for September 2026, then give a report for every province and each major city and region, from Toronto and Vancouver to Calgary, Montreal and Halifax. Each report is built from the local real estate board’s own release and shows the month its figures are for.

Buying a home

• First-time home buyers: the federal and provincial programs, down payment rules and a guide for each province
• How to buy a home: the purchase step by step, from pre-approval and offers to inspections, closing costs and moving in
• Where to buy: province and city guides to buying, and comparisons of neighbourhoods and nearby cities

Renting

The Canada rental market pages give average rents and vacancy rates for each province and major city, with the rules on rent increases where you live.

Housing market analysis

The housing market analysis pages look at the longer view: housing affordability, the price-to-income ratio, Canada’s housing shortage and housing starts, whether the market is in a bubble, and who owns and buys homes, from the generational gap to investors.

Related tools

• Mortgage affordability calculator: how much home an income supports
• Income needed to afford a home: the income a lender looks for at a given price
• Land transfer tax calculator: provincial and municipal transfer taxes
• Rent vs buy calculator: the long-run cost of each