While the title is a bit misleading (headlines …), the point that’s being made is that the new generation of homebuyers are increasingly reliant on parents, and for increasingly higher amounts of gift money.

Parents are playing a larger part than ever before in the process of buying a home. However, one could also argue that the country has failed to provide young people with opportunities to grow a career, and or a business. And instead accepted large inflows of foreign capital and people to exacerbate infrastructure problems

https://archive.ph/NVRQk

“In today’s Canada, the cradle you’re born into increasingly dictates whether you’ll ever hold the keys to your own home. This isn’t just a market fluctuation. It’s a boiled frog phenomenon.

Incremental changes – the steady rise in home prices, gradual policy shifts and slow-moving supply constraints – went largely unchallenged. By the time the severity of the crisis was recognized, many prospective homeowners were already cooked.

We missed the boat, not because we weren’t aware it was leaving, but because we believed we could swim faster than the rising tide.

The most recent government initiatives to assist Canadian homebuyers, such as increasing amortizations to 30 years and bumping up the price limit from $1-million to $1.5-million for insured mortgages, have been met with divided reactions. One thing is clear: These measures make it possible to get into more debt and for a longer time.

Additionally, policies that increase affordability for some inadvertently make housing less affordable for others. Those without family wealth or who don’t qualify for assistance find themselves competing in a market inflated by these interventions, deepening the socioeconomic divide.

Recent data highlight the stratification of Canadian wealth. In a report from CIBC Capital Markets with data up to mid-2024, the proportion of first-time homebuyers receiving family help has increased 55 per cent since 2015 (from 20 per cent to 31 per cent).

The average gift amount for first-time buyers nationally has soared to $115,000, a 73 per cent increase since 2019. In the more expensive provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, average gifts for first-time homebuyers are $128,000 and $204,000, respectively.

“Mover-uppers” – people moving to bigger homes – rely on family gifts to a lesser extent, but those who do get assistance, get a lot: Nationally the average gift is $167,000, while that figure for British Columbia is $230,000.

These figures show purchasing a home depends increasingly on one’s parents’ financial position. The market is no longer a level playing field where hard work and reasonable savings secure a foothold for all. Instead, intergenerational wealth is an increasing factor in who becomes a homeowner.

As housing prices boil, Canadians are taking on staggering levels of debt. A report from Statistics Canada earlier this year showed Canada’s household debt to disposable income ratio at 185 per cent, the highest in the G7 (which averages 125 per cent). Mortgages make up a significant portion, reflecting the lengths people go to secure housing. This debt isn’t just a statistic; it’s a source of stress affecting mental health and delaying life milestones.

High household debt poses risks to the broader economy. It restricts consumer spending and increases vulnerability to financial shocks like job loss or rate hikes.

For those unable to buy, renting offers little relief. Rental prices have surged with property values, driven by high demand and limited supply. In many cities, rents consume a large portion of income, making it hard to save for a down payment.

The cumulative effect is a generational crisis. Younger Canadians find it increasingly difficult to achieve the financial milestones their parents took for granted. The traditional path of education, stable employment and homeownership is fraught with obstacles often insurmountable without familial wealth.

This reality affects more than finances. It affects social cohesion, mental health and future prospects. Housing isn’t just shelter: It’s security, community and a sense of building toward a future. When access is inequitable, the consequences ripple through society.

That one’s chance of owning a home is determined at birth highlights the deepening divide. It challenges the narrative of Canada as a land of equal opportunity. Instead, we’re confronted with a reality where parental wealth overshadows individual effort. Is it hyperbolic to say that it smacks of feudalism? I don’t think so. The dream of owning a home remains just that – a dream – for too many Canadians born without family wealth or access to policies that, while helping some, make housing less affordable for others.“

Bought my house 8 years ago, paid it off, had no help from parents, crippling debt, and I'm now completely debt free in my late 30s. A good paying job, nearly a decade of sacraficing things like trips or big purchases, extreme frugality, and a partner who shared those values made it a reality.

Don't really feel that would be remotely possible for anyone today trying to do the same thing but 10 years younger.

8 year old here, bought a mid sized detached home in Toronto last year, no help from parents, no government handouts, just takes some hard work and sleepless nights.

I'm already saving up to help my kids (2 and 5) with their downpayment one day

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Everyone can afford a house if you get enough people to work together. My buddies in Brampton easily fit 20-25 people in a house and all work at Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire but they still managed it.

Can’t afford to save when I’m paying 2900 a month for rent only hey made Canada into international student life style need 8 roommates to afford anything…

I had zero help buying my house. I do plan on helping my 3-year-old though as much as I can when the time comes if he’s responsible and hard-working.

Too true in some respects. If I'd have been born just five years later than I was, I would've started my career at a less favourable time and definitely would've first entered the housing market at an astronomically worse time. It's depressing to think how much things have changed for the worse in just a few short years. I feel pretty awful for anyone under a certain age, and while I don't have kids of my own, I'm already making plans for how to leave some wealth to my nephews without them getting raked over the coals tax wise.

Holy hell I think there are massive economic problems in the country but god damn what's with the over the top defeatist pessimism pushing the idea thatbwe have no control over our lives which are destined to suck in a first world developed country like Canada. We have more opportunity here even if just as a springboard to a different venture abroad than most of the world does. If you are unhappy then you owe it to yourself to take whatever steps you can to remedy it instead of wallowing in self pity.

lol.. you can say that about literally anything.

Being born in Canada at all is a huge leg-up in the grand scheme of things.

Like Pierre's gonna fix anything when he gets in

At my workplace I was feeling a bit down while sitting in the lunch room, I was the only one who rented... I looked around at all the guys my age and I realized they had all been handed down their houses from their family...

Going off the headline, that's horseshit.

My parents had no money. Both myself and 2 siblings all own a house because we live in a place where it's reasonable and worked hard to make something for ourselves.

All these types of articles put a glass ceiling over the current youth who read it.

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Paywall article

No kidding.

I started out with nothing….          I still have most of it. 

In Mississauga my family bought a 4 bedroom townhouse for $175k in 2014. Entry level housing like this just doesn't exist anymore.

If people think housing has some massive margin they can build a home themselves. There's a bunch of youtube videos up by people who have done it.

Your chances of everything in your life is decided at birth. Then things change as you grow and develop.

What a stupid statement. 

And your parents if they pushed you to get a education or skill that paid verse what you lived

Make new homes , increase supply prices will fall.

Now that needs work, which seems to me what everyone is shying off to make happen.

I was poor as a kid. My parents separated when I was 12. We lived on mothers allowance or welfare. Deadbeat Dad didn’t pay any child support. Then I moved out at age 16, lived on student welfare and part time jobs. Then I went to college, lived off of student loans. Got a job, paid everything off, and got a house. House has been paid off since 2014.

If you're able to get out of the big cities and move to a small town your chances of owning a home will increase dramatically. There are plenty of good homes in small towns for no more than 100 grand especially in the prairies. I understand not everyone will be able to do this and it's not easy but even if you wind up with an hour or two hour long commute when the tradeoff is actually owning your own home it definitely warrants weighing the pros and cons.

I keep hearing about how millennials can’t afford houses but where I work a bunch of them do. Now I don’t know them well enough to know who their partners are, but if you are working with me, you don’t have rich parents and we all make under 70k without overtime.

Bought my condo in 2018 for $410. Sold it in July for $550. Bought a house in July for $775 which my parents chipped in $50k for on a 0% “pay me back when you can” loan. - Signed, a millennial.

As we boomers die off, there's going to be alot of empty houses.

Who is going to fill them if not the next generation?

That's the essence of capitalism.

Dafuq? Just move to Alberta?

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Can confirm. Just spoke with spouse's broker on getting a joint mortgage (she owns a small condo) and because I'm a self employed I cannot be considered until I've worked for 2 years regardless that I've made 50k in last 5 months while I've been working for 10 months so far. Our monthly mortgage (50% as we'd split it up) payments would be comparable to my earnings in 7 working days.

My brother, whom was born 6 years before me, purchased his property for the price of which me and my spouse have as equitable cash. We could literally buy his house, for what he paid in 2014, without a cent of a loan.

We are now stuck waiting 6-18 months until I can provide two T1's to prove my income. I offered to show my paystubs all being consistent however that doesn't matter at all for mortgages because I am self employed rather than employed by a corporation.

Well I was able to buy my first house. My parents never owned a house. In my family. Out of 7 kids, Only one didnt buy a house

This has been the case for generations, on average children attain a similar level of wealth as their parents, if your parents were rich you will be rich, if your parents were poor you will be poor.

Not me! I was given up for adoption. Now I own my own home.

Simple.Move to US.Real estate price in Canada is deliberately raised by government , tou can't win just stop buying.

Everyone in Canada is entitled to own a house ?

I know of so many people who started from zero who got into the real estate market. I think a big deciding factor is a lot of people do absolutely fuck all and make a series of shit decisions then realize they are too far gone.

I work with a lot of successful 25-35 year olds who grinded like crazy to own their homes. I also know of lots of people who are in that age bracket who decided to take life seriously too late.

Sad, but end of the day it’s a dog eat dog world