A for sale sign sits in front of a Toronto home in 2022. In Canada's most expensive cities especially, financial assistance from parents is becoming a bigger deciding factor in who is able to purchase their first home. Help from parents is increasingly becoming a deciding factor in who is able to realize their dream of owning a home and who is not.
"So when my mom started out in the housing market in the mid 1970s, it would have taken five years of full-time work for a typical young adult to save a 20 per cent down payment on an average price home," Kershaw toldAs a result, those who can "are turning to the members in their family for whom rising home prices haven't been a hardship — they've been a boon," said Kershaw, who holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D in political science, law and economics.
With student loans to pay off, Kealin Williams said she and her wife — who are both in their 30s — don't see how they can change their status as renters while living in Toronto, even once Williams completes her post-grad certificate in human resources and returns to full-time work. For Matthew Booth, 29, getting the cash together for a deposit on a condo in Calgary — still relatively affordable compared to places like Vancouver and Toronto — meant working a second job as a server four or five nights per week. Matthew Booth, 29, purchased his first property earlier this month: a $415,000 two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Calgary where he's just started a new job as director of sales and marketing for a large hotel.
The 23-year-old has been working for the Ontario government since February 2023, and saving diligently thanks to living rent-free with her parents. She also lived at home during university, allowing her to complete her degree without student debt. "We both work full time, so it's definitely frustrating knowing that what we could afford would be two or three hours outside of the city."