Residents of Canada’s three biggest cities are open to moving as a means of escape from the high cost of housing.
About half of all residents in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver would relocate to less expensive places in Canada if they could find work there or work from there remotely, according to a new survey conducted by Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
In fact, more half of all residents surveyed in the greater regions of Montreal, 54%, and Toronto, 51%, would consider relocating to a more affordable place in Canada. In greater Vancouver, 45% of respondents would do the same, according to Royal LePage's survey of 900 Canadian adults in those cities.
Renters are more likely than owners to consider moving, with 60% of those who rent saying they were willing to relocate. As for homeowners, 45% said they would consider a move.
The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,646 in Vancouver, $2,459 in Toronto and $1,751 in Montreal, an annual increase of 9.9%, according to data from Urbanation and Rentals.ca .
Asked to choose which city they would move to, Torontonians ranked Edmonton first, followed by Thunder Bay, Ontario, and St. John’s Newfoundland.
Among greater Montreal area residents, 29% said they’d relocate to Quebec City, 15% would pick Sherbrooke and 12% would select Trois-Rivières.
Among respondents living in the Vancouver area, 19% said they would pick Edmonton, followed by St. John's, 13%, and Thunder Bay, 9%.
Thunder Bay is Canada’s most affordable city, according to the Royal LePage data, as 22.2% of monthly income there is required to service a mortgage. Saint John, New Brunswick, Red Deer, Alberta, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, and Edmonton, Alberta, follow to round out the top five, as approximately 25.1% to 28.9% of a household monthly income would be required to service a mortgage in those places. One city just outside of the top five Canadian rankings for affordability include St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where homes cost $342,000 on aggregate according to most recent available data, requiring 30.1% of the household monthly income of $71,2000.
The calculations were based on median household income and city-level aggregate home price data and based on mortgages of 5.51% amortized over 25 years with a 20% downpayment.