More than 40 per cent of young homeowners in Ontario got financial help from parents: poll

Approximately 40 per cent of the parents of younger homeowners in Ontario say that they helped their children financially with their purchase, with the average gift exceeding $70,000.

A new Abacus Data poll commissioned by the Ontario Real Estate Association has found that 41 per cent of the parents of children aged 18 to 38 who own their homes helped finance that purchase, some to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

In fact, the poll of 2,000 Ontario adults found that among those who provided financial assistance the vast majority (72 per cent) gifted money to help with the down payment, with the average value of those gifts totalling $73,605.

Among those who only provided a loan for the down payment, the average contribution was $40,878.

Meanwhile, 38 per cent of parents who helped financially with a house purchase said that they help their children pay their mortgage payments, suggesting that a not insignificant number of younger homeowners would struggle to pay their bills without assistance.

“Parents are becoming increasingly worried that their children may not be able to achieve the dream of home ownership, so they are pulling out all the stops to help them get their foot in the market,” OREA CEO Tim Hudak said in a press release accompanying the poll results.

“We are in a housing affordability crisis being driven by severe lack of supply, and increased demand, especially around ‘missing middle’ type properties. Without meaningful action at all levels of government, Ontario’s millennials and young families will be forced to look outside the province for their first home, leading to brain drain and negatively impacting our economic competitiveness.”

Over the last year the average price of a GTA home across all property types rose by 29 per cent and now stands at $1.2 million.

The Toronto Region Real Estate Board has said that it expects prices to keep rising in 2022, even as an expected rise in interest rates makes for higher borrowing costs.

The poll commissioned by the OREA found that about 71 per cent of non-homeowners still aspire to purchase residential real estate.

But of those individuals more than half (55 per cent) said that they were pessimistic about buying a home in a community they actually want to live in.

About 60 per cent of respondents also said that their community has already been impacted by people moving out of large centres in search of more affordable housing.

In the release, Hudak said that the poll results are “not surprising” given the supply challenges that exist.

“To bring affordability home for young Ontarians, we need to be continually increase housing supply and choice in the market, across the province,” he said.

The poll was conducted between January 20-25 and is considered accurate to within 2.17 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.