New Data Shows Canada Still Has 1.3 Million Vacant Homes, Some Improvements Seen

Canada’s vacant home problem is improving but not very quickly. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) Census 2021 data reveals vacant homes fell from 2016. Resort towns have the highest share of vacant homes. This occurred despite the boom in year round residents in these cities. Let’s take a dive into the data. 

Canada’s Vacant Homes

The term vacant home is triggering to some, so let’s quickly go over what they are (and aren’t). Canada only measures the number of private dwellings occupied by usual residents. This leaves us with the total number of private dwellings, and primary residents. By subtracting usual residents from the private dwelling total, we get vacant homes.  

Most people think of a vacant home as a run down property with the windows knocked out. The kind you see when you drunkenly walk down a side street at 2am, and it’s clear no one could live there. This number includes more though, including any secondary residence(s) or vacation homes. New homes built and ready to be occupied, but aren’t yet, are also included in this number.

In real estate crazy Canada, the term is more controversial than the rest of the world. A similar criteria is used in the US, where they do an annual vacancy count and call it so. The OECD also uses a similar criteria, but some people aren’t a fan of calling a vacation home, a vacant home. Aw, muffin. Buck up. One person’s vacation home is another person’s vacant home. It’s not personal. 

There is a fair bit of misunderstanding about the numbers. One key point often made is, students and temporary residents aren’t included in the data. That’s not true according to Stat Can, which includes both as usual residents.

Further, private dwellings require not passing through the living space of another person (or persons). That means dorms and long-term care facilities aren’t even counted as private dwellings. So yes, those students are excluded, but so are the dwellings they live in. It doesn’t matter if collective dwellings are occupied or not, they aren’t included.

Canada Still Has 1.3 Million Vacant Homes

Canada still has an unusually large number of vacant homes, but they’re falling fast. There were 1.31 million vacant homes in 2021, down 2.62% from the previous 2016 Census. This translates into a drop of 35,070 units, which is impressive for such a short period of time. There will always be some vacant units as people shift around, but this is still high for a small population.

Canadian Vacant Home Count By Province

The number of homes that were not occupied by the usual resident at the time of Census, by province.

Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.

Canada delivered a lot of homes during this period, driving the vacancy rate lower. The share of vacant private dwellings fell to 8.0% in 2021, down from 8.7% in 2016. Nearly one in ten homes vacant feels like a high number, but it’s lower than the US at 11% of stock sitting vacant. It’s still 9x greater than the UK though, and they consider it to be a serious housing issue

Canada’s real estate industry took aim at the OECD for using 2016 data in their recent vacancy study. After all, the market began booming after that so it must have fallen. Lame, this is stale data, right? Once again, the 2021 data shows some improvement but not to the extent implied.

Canada’s “Resort Towns” Have The Most Vacant Homes

The highest share of vacant homes were in resort towns where the population is booming. Canmore’s housing stock had the biggest share at 25.9% in 2021, but that’s down from 27.9% in 2016. Wasaga Beach is in second with 21.5% of stock, down from 28.1% over the same period. The town of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts was third with 19.9%, down from 25.9% at the last Census. High rates in small places that are considered vacation spots are somewhat expected. 

The above markets are some of the fastest growing for price and population. RBC observed these “resort towns” have the fastest population growth across Canada. They attribute this to higher income city residents moving out to where they can afford. At the same time, the bank says this is eroding affordability for locals. As towns used for vacations turn into cities, there’s going to be a lot of debate as to what is a valid use of housing.

Toronto Now Represents 1 In 10 Vacant Homes

Toronto real estate is the largest market, so it doesn’t surprise that it has the most vacant homes. There were 131,730 vacant homes in 2021, up a whopping 32.75% from the 2016 Census. It works out to around 30,000 homes, or roughly 1 in 10 vacant homes across the country. It’s almost half the size of all vacant homes in the UK.

Despite Toronto building as fast as it can, the share of vacant units is rising too. About 5.5% of the city’s housing stock was vacant, up from 4.4% over the same period. Considering 1 in 4 homes in the region are sold to investors, it shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a challenge to find another city with 200 vacant units in a purpose built rental building complex

Canadian Vacant Home Count By City

The number of homes that were not occupied by the usual resident at the time of Census, by top 50 cities.

Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.

Vancouver’s Vacant Homes See A Sharp Drop

Vancouver real estate has become notorious for its vacant homes, but it’s improving at a rapid rate. There were 61,213 vacant homes in 2021, down 8.25% from the 2016 Census data. Could you imagine an eight point drop for anything but vacant homes, and not hearing about it every day? It’s huge.

Greater Vancouver has added a ton of housing stock while driving the vacant rate lower. Vacant homes represent 5.5% of the region’s housing stock, down a full point. While it’s now at the same rate as Toronto, they’re both heading in opposite directions. BC recently implemented a vacant home tax that applies a penalty for low use. There are numerous exemptions and loopholes, but it’s clearly forcing scrutiny on use.

Andy Yan, director at the SFU Urban Planning department, described the change as “astonishing” to the Vancouver Sun. He’s been studying the use of housing in Greater Vancouver, especially underuse. He attributes the dramatic change in behavior to a number of policy moves in BC.

Canada Is Designing A National Vacancy Tax

Both the City of Toronto and the Federal government are scrambling to create a vacancy tax. Toronto is likely to have it live first, modeling it largely after Vancouver. However, don’t expect the same results from the Federal Government’s vacancy tax. Exemptions are being discussed that won’t appear in legislation, according to a parliamentary committee. One example will be vacation properties that don’t have a definition as of yet.

Canada is making some headway in reducing the number of vacant homes in its major urban areas. However, as Millennials get priced out of cities, they’re fleeing to “vacation” towns. Many of these homes are three-season, so it’s easy to see it as “obviously” a vacation home. However, the government is missing that many Millennials buy these for year round occupancy. It seems to be another miss for privileged policymakers that would never consider living full-time in a 3 season home. Millennial buyers just insulate them. This is no doubt one of the reasons cottage country leads in price growth in Ontario.  

Essentially, some progress is being made. However, adding another policy inefficiency is likely to move the issue from big cities to small towns.

Seems like a complicated way to address an issue that would largely resolve with higher interest rates.

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  • RW 2 years ago

    There are four houses on my street in downtown Toronto owned by the government that have had racoons living in it for almost a decade now. Coyotes are now sleeping on the lawn and waiting for them. It’s a joke of a country, and it’s even more insane that no one sees it.

    • Van YIMBY 2 years ago

      Their findings are the same. The difference between the OECD’s interpretations and the real estate industry’s “we’re just normal people who spend all day soft lobbying!” is the OECD considers things like vacation homes vacant. The industry says it’s not vacant if you live in it at some point.

      The industry also says students aren’t included (wrong), and a lot of it is inventory. Both high inventory during the last Census and record low inventory had the same impact? Most houses aren’t empty for a signifiant period.

      The industry labelled it a “myth” but in reality they started doing that when they realized a national vacancy tax was in the cards.

      The true test of whether someone actually wants more affordability is you can advocate for better use of existing stock as well as building more homes.

      • GTA Landlord 2 years ago

        My favorite part of this whole “the myth of vacant homes” narrative is they’re basically arguing Canada is a shit city. Global investors are buying *KEY* pieces of property for their portfolios as bets on real estate.

        Vacant homes are a part of being in a world class city. Either Vancouver is a world class city where people spend a small portion of their time in a nice place, or it’s a working class one where the homes are packed to the brim.

  • Han 2 years ago

    Didn’t you see the real estate industry’s videos? No one that lives in another country has a home here, they only bought into markets like Singapore.

    Canada isn’t worth international investor’s time. Just people that live here on local incomes. Must be committing a lot of mortgage fraud for that to work.

  • Simon Chan 2 years ago

    The real estate industry was somehow saying 55% of millennials are buying a secondary property in 2019, but no one has a second property.

    Myth of vacant homes or myth of high volumes of buyers. Can’t be both.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/adv/article-more-millennials-are-buying-vacation-homes-heres-what-theyre-after/

    • Raging Ranter 2 years ago

      That article is “paid post”. Even says so at the top. So it’s just industry propaganda. Kind of like the twin sisters from mainland China a decade ago who were in Vancouver condo shopping (buying one each of course – even twins like their space). Turns out they were Vancouver residents who posed for the article, and weren’t buying anything.

  • Dhruba Ghosh 2 years ago

    These information about vacant homes are not right. These homes are the ones which are unliveble or in remotest of places. Why would the price go this far if there are enough and right supplies. The givt at all levels are working in tandem with builders who are developing small piece of lands to contain the supply and making huge profits. Its called hoarding. Why should we be the 4th most expensive place on earth to live! What happened yo its socialistic economic principles? A country that made immigration a business!!! Why dont we hear a news on new investments by large corporations? That can bring prosperity l, jobs and everything to the common people of Canada and nit hoards of people through immigration and majority of them on fake work visas and fly by night opearators who call themsrlves college. Its a joke. They are only buying money through easier route. And drsyrying the countries economical fundamentals and delivering a bleak future to our kids.

    • TIm 2 years ago

      That’s actually incorrect. The highest growth of homebuyers are “in unlivable or the remotest of places.”

      It also doesn’t make sense because it’s right there in the article — 30% in Toronto as investors become 30% of the market.

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