As employees and employers negotiate new possibilities for remote and hybrid work as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, a newly released generational trends report by Mustel Group and Sotheby’s International Realty Canada highlights new insights revealing that future housing demand will be underpinned by an expectation for a return to office life, as well as a balanced preference for urban and suburban living amongst Generation Z home buyers.
Survey Highlights
- Nearly half (47%) of urban Canadian Generation Z adults rank proximity to their workplace as a top priority for the location of their first home purchase; however, just 15% indicate that buying in or close to the downtown core is a priority.
- 40% plan to purchase their first home in a major city, while 42% plan to buy in a suburb outside of a major city. 7% expect to buy their first home in a small town and 3% expect to do so in a rural area.
- 48% of Calgary’s Generation Z adults plan to buy their first home in a major city, surpassing those who plan to do so in Toronto (37%) and Vancouver (36%).
- 7 in 10 (73%) of Canada’s urban Generation Z adults plan to buy their first home in their current city of residence or within a one-hour drive, with 41% of all respondents planning to buy their first home in their current city and 32% planning to buy within a one-hour drive of their current city.
Media Coverage
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Yahoo Finance
Daily Hive Vancouver
Daily Hive Toronto
About this survey
- An online methodology was employed, using a robust national panel of Canadians who reside in the four greater metropolitan areas of interest: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
- A total of 1,502 Generation Z adults were surveyed, using a disproportionate sampling method to enable analysis within each metropolitan area, as well as across the combined metros (Census Metropolitan Areas, CMAs).
- The sample was weighted to match Canada census on the basis of age, household income and home ownership within each CMA and to bring the total sample into proper proportion based on relative populations.
- While the panel sample is demographically representative, margins of error only apply to random probability samples. (The margin of error on a random probability sample of 1,502 respondents is ± 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and ranges from ± 4.5 to 5.4 points for 325 – 476 respondents).
- Data collection dates were Oct 25th to Nov 10th, 2021.