New StatCan data shows immigrants are buying homes faster even as affordability challenges mount
Recent immigrants to Canada are entering the housing market faster than earlier cohorts, even as homeownership rates among Canadian-born residents continue to fall, according to a new Statistics Canada study.
The report, "The homeownership trajectories of recent immigrants, 2017 to 2021," combines data from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) with immigration records for permanent residents aged 25 to 54 across seven provinces.
In Ontario, the homeownership rate among immigrants in their fifth year after admission rose to 40.2% in 2021 from 35.7% in 2018, while the Canadian-born rate fell to 47.8% from 50.7%.
Nova Scotia recorded a sharper convergence: fifth-year immigrant ownership climbed to 48.1% from 34.8% over the same period.
New Brunswick was the sole province where fifth-year immigrants outpaced Canadian-born residents outright — 56.6% against 54.8%.
The widest gap persisted in British Columbia, where fifth-year immigrants recorded 37.5% against 43.3% for Canadian-born residents.
Prior Canadian experience a key driver
In each province covered, more than 85% of immigrants who owned a home in their first year as permanent residents had already spent time in Canada as international students, temporary foreign workers, or asylum claimants before receiving landed status.
That prior Canadian experience helps newcomers build the credit history and savings required to qualify for a mortgage sooner after landing.
Economic-class immigrants posted the highest ownership rates of any immigration category, with refugees recording the lowest.
Samuel MacIsaac, a senior research analyst at Statistics Canada's Centre for Housing and Income Statistics, said that "while immigrants remain less likely to be homeowners than the average Canadian-born person by their fifth year as immigrants, that gap in ownership reduces substantially."
Bigger mortgages, fewer retirement contributions
Despite earning lower incomes than Canadian-born first-time buyers, recent immigrants consistently purchased more expensive properties.
In British Columbia, the median home purchase price for newcomers reached $660,000 in 2021, compared with $580,000 for Canadian-born buyers.
Average monthly mortgage payments for recent immigrants came to $1,920 that year. That's $500 higher than the $1,420 paid by Canadian-born homeowners.
Immigrant buyers were also less likely to contribute to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) in the year they purchased a home.
MacIsaac said newcomers "may be more likely to view the primary residence as a form of equity building whereas their Canadian-born counterparts may be more likely to use, say, retirement savings or other tools."
StatCan concluded that this leaves recent immigrant buyers more financially exposed to shifts in housing markets due to higher debt levels. It noted that Canada admitted a record number of newcomers from 2022 to 2024, and that homeownership demand among those already admitted is likely to grow as they spend more time in the country.
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