0:00:00

2 women are seated across from each other at a desk, facing one another. Each has a microphone in front of her. The camera shifts between showing each woman individually and showing them both together.

0:00:01

JOELLE HAMILTON: What can you tell us about homebuyers in 2025?

0:00:04

SABRINA GUAY: We did see an increase in first-time homebuyers. We asked questions around the financial health of mortgage borrowers. The most widely used platform or area where people are getting mortgage-related information is websites.

0:00:19

JOELLE: What can you tell us about renovation trends?

0:00:21

SABRINA: Home energy improvements are paying off. CMHC aims to support mortgage professionals by helping them stay 1 step ahead.

(On screen: An animated intro appears featuring a coloured background with dark shades of red, purple, and black and geometric shapes resembling houses. A magnifying glass moves into view, and the words "Canada's housing market" appear on screen.)

0:00:31

VOICEOVER: You're listening to "In-House," Canada's housing podcast, where we share the latest on Canada's housing market.

(On-screen text: In-House, Canada's Housing Podcast)

(The camera cuts to the host of the podcast, Joelle Hamilton.)

(On-screen text: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC)

0:00:45

JOELLE: Hello everyone and welcome back to In-House. I'm your host, Joelle Hamilton. In January this year, we reached out to nearly 4,000 recent mortgage consumers across Canada, and we surveyed homebuyers, renewers, refinancers to find out how they feel about buying a home, securing a mortgage, and who they turn to for help. With me is Sabrina Guay, who was here last year to talk about the Mortgage Consumer Survey. Welcome back, Sabrina.

0:01:13

SABRINA: Thank you, Joelle. It's exciting to be here again this year. It's a big year for the Mortgage Consumer Survey.

0:01:18

JOELLE: I hear.

0:01:18

SABRINA: It's the 25th edition.

0:01:20

JOELLE: 25 years!

0:01:21

SABRINA: So thanks for inviting me again so we can discuss the findings.

0:01:25

JOELLE: OK, so, Sabrina, for our viewers who aren't familiar with the Mortgage Consumer Survey, which we might refer to as "MCS" for short during this podcast, can you just give us a quick overview of what the MCS is?

(On-screen text: Sabrina Guay, Specialist, Training - CMHC)

0:01:39

SABRINA: Certainly. So the Mortgage Consumer Survey is one of the largest, most comprehensive surveys on mortgage consumers in Canada. We get to hear first-hand from homebuyers that arranged a mortgage to buy their home, we get to hear from refinancers, we get to hear from those that renewed their mortgage. And that gives us the opportunity to dive into their behaviours, their attitudes, and their expectations throughout the process of homeownership and when they arrange their mortgage, the mortgage process.

0:02:11

JOELLE: What value does the MCS have for our clients?

0:02:15

SABRINA: Yeah. So CMHC aims to support mortgage professionals by helping them stay 1 step ahead in an industry that's constantly changing and evolving. We provide them tools like the Mortgage Consumer Survey, information to help them better understand their clients. With that information, they're able to then better understand their clients, tailor their products and services, look at the experience that the consumer goes through to improve the satisfaction levels, and also stay 1 step ahead on those trends that are evolving through preferences and so forth. So it really gives them an opportunity to plan strategically based on the information that we're able to provide them from the Survey.

0:02:56

JOELLE: I know we've been doing this for 25 years, but like in a nutshell, how has the survey evolved in the last 25 years?

0:03:05

SABRINA: Yeah. So, every year, we review the questionnaire in its entirety. We keep certain questions so we can get historical trends about homebuyers throughout the years. Are things improving? Are they more concerned, less concerned and so forth? But we also add a lot of new questions to address some of the current conditions of our industry. So this year, we did a deeper dive on home energy efficiency renovations and the purchase of those types of homes. We also added information around secondary suites, and we asked more questions around technology that's being used in the mortgage process. Overall, the Mortgage Consumer Survey is an essential annual publication that we offer to mortgage consumers and mortgage professionals in order to help them tailor their business.

0:03:52

JOELLE: So based on the Survey, what can you tell us about mortgage transactions and consumers this year?

0:04:00

SABRINA: Yeah. So that's a really good question. Overall, if we compare last year to this year, the number of mortgage transactions has stayed pretty stable. 16% of Canadians contracted a new mortgage in the 18 months prior to the Survey. There was some shift regionally that we saw, which we found quite interesting. For example, British Columbia last year had the least amount of mortgage transactions. This year they had the most amount of mortgage transactions. Also, we saw that 65% of our respondents were renewing their mortgage. So that tends to be the transaction that we see more often. And you think of the homeownership cycle, you're probably going to buy one, maybe a few properties throughout your whole lifetime. You may refinance a couple of times, depending on what's going on or opportunities you want to take advantage of, but you're going to renew that mortgage every, you know, 3 to 5 years, on average. Also, which was quite exciting to see, is that we did see an increase in first-time homebuyers, so more people were able to enter the housing market this year.

0:05:01

JOELLE: That's actually… I think that's good, right?

0:05:04

SABRINA: Mm-hmm.

0:05:05

JOELLE: It is good news. So before we get into what Canadians had to say about their homebuying process or their experience renewing or refinancing their mortgages, what can you tell us about who they are? Just like paint that picture.

(On-screen text: "SUBSCRIBE" followed by an icon in the shape of a bell.)

0:05:19

SABRINA: Yeah. So demographically about half of mortgage consumers are aged between 25 and 44. They drive much of the mortgage and homebuying market. Education-wise, they're quite educated. 80% of mortgage consumers have postsecondary education, 70% are either married or living common-law, and 20% are single individuals. If we look at income, for instance, 43% make a household income over 105,000. And if we look at the type of property that people are living in, are preferring, 2/3 of Canadians live in a single-detached home. There are some regional differences. If you live in a very urban area, we will see a little bit more condos, more townhouses, more attached homes. But typically a single-detached home was the preference that we saw. And something that was interesting, too: 40% of the mortgage transactions were for properties that were investment properties, so that people were renting. So that's interesting to see that there is a strong interest in the real estate investment market in Canada.

0:06:27

JOELLE: So, Sabrina, what else can you tell us about homebuyers in 2025?

0:06:31

SABRINA: Like I mentioned, first-time homebuyers increased. So we saw more people entering the market. There was a slight reduction in the amount of repeat buyers. Primarily, people told us that they were purchasing or that they had bought because they were financially ready to buy. So they had saved up their down payment and they could qualify for the mortgage, and they were ready to get into homeownership. About 1/3 of homebuyers were motivated, however, by the rise in housing prices, so they decided to act now rather than waiting, believing that home prices might increase in the future and it would be more expensive for them to get in later. So we thought that was pretty interesting that people felt the pressure to buy faster because they wanted to avoid a higher…

0:07:16

JOELLE: Higher prices in the future.

0:07:16

SABRINA: Exactly. Yeah.

0:07:18

JOELLE: What did homebuyers say about how much they paid for their home or how they financed it?

0:07:26

SABRINA: That's a really good question, because this year we found that more mortgage consumers had stretched their budget. About half paid the maximum that they could afford for their mortgage. They went to the very top of their budget. In terms of down payments though, we saw that people were able to buy faster this year. So on average it took 3.4 years to save up their down payment versus last year it was 4.2 years. So people are able to purchase a little bit faster. Repeat buyers tend to use previous equity, that's their main source of down payment, whereas first-time homebuyers will use a mix of [sources for their] down payments. Gifts and inheritances were actually the most widely used. And if we look at all of our homebuyers, on average they received about $80,000 toward their down payment. That does vary regionally. If you look at Ontario and B.C., it could go as high as $150,000 because the house prices are quite a bit higher. And fewer buyers needed those [sources to make their] down payments this year. So that's good news. Without the gift or the inheritance, 80% of homebuyers would still have been able to purchase. That does, however, still leave 1 in 5 relying on that gift in order to get into the housing market.

0:08:42

JOELLE: And how many homebuyers needed MLI? "MLI," for our viewers, is "mortgage loan insurance."

0:08:48

SABRINA: Yeah. So mortgage loan insurance is required when a buyer is putting less than 20% down. It helps them get into the market much faster with a smaller down payment. So naturally, first-time homebuyers tend to be the biggest users of mortgage loan insurance – 60% rely on mortgage loan insurance to help them make that first purchase, versus 30% for repeat buyers.

0:09:12

JOELLE: And is there anything that we didn't already talk about that's interesting to know?

0:09:18

SABRINA: Yeah. So we found that there were 2 important takeaways or 2 interesting takeaways from the homebuying section this year. First of all, homebuying isn't always smooth sailing, right? It's a big purchase. It's a major life purchase. It's maybe one of the most expensive things you're going to buy in your life. So there's no doubt that you're going to likely feel some uncertainties. But we find that level of uncertainty still high this year – 62% of homebuyers feel some sort of concern while they're going through the homeownership process. And that's consistent with last year. Additionally, it was really interesting to see how people were living. Mortgage consumers, half of them have another adult living with them that's not their spouse. So maybe that's their parents, an adult child, or a roommate that's living with them. And we found that it was more common with first-time homebuyers as well as younger mortgage consumers, maybe to help offset some of those… managing the cost of homeownership.

0:10:23

JOELLE: We know interest rates are coming down since you were here to talk to us last spring about the Mortgage Consumer Survey, but I think we can say that they're still volatile. What impact has this had on mortgage consumers?

0:10:37

SABRINA: Yeah. The good news is increases in interest rates have had less of an impact than they did last year when we spoke. They have gone down a little bit since June 2024, so that's helped some mortgage consumers even get into the market – we saw a little bit of an uptick in transactions after the rates started dropping. However, 1 in 3 renewers or refinancers were either highly or moderately impacted by the rise of interest rates. Many of those would have contracted a mortgage in 2018 to 2022, where the rates were very, very low, so they would have felt a sharp kind of increase in their rate, even though they're starting to drop. Despite the drops in interest rates, about half still expressed concerns about defaulting on their payments. That is steady year over year, so it hasn't peaked or gone down. And 45% of those that have concerns about defaulting say that it's mostly driven by the cost of living, the rise in the cost of living.

0:11:43

JOELLE: And do these concerns translate into, like, actual difficulties maintaining payments?

0:11:49

SABRINA: Yeah, there was a sizable increase in the amount of people that said they had difficulties managing their financial obligations. Credit cards were the ones that were mentioned as the most difficult to manage, followed by their mortgage payments. More people are using one credit facility to pay off another credit facility. So these are trends that we want to continue to monitor in order to evaluate the financial health of mortgage consumers.

0:12:16

JOELLE: And how did they manage those concerns and difficulties?

0:12:19

SABRINA: Yeah. So the good news is that many of those that had expressed concerns or even missed a payment are taking proactive steps in order to stay on track. So most of them are reducing their expenses or are monitoring their budget more closely. Almost half of the respondents are also paying off their mortgage faster. So we have, on one hand, half of them that are having difficulties or have concerns around the payments, and the other half that are taking full advantage of their mortgage features and making lump sum payments and trying to pay it down faster. So it's an interesting landscape.

0:12:55

JOELLE: And there are many professionals and resources available to mortgage consumers. Can you walk us through what they're saying about where they got support and information throughout the homebuying process?

0:13:11

SABRINA: Yeah. So there was an increase this year on all fronts with regard to collecting information, whether that's on social media, online, on websites, or even contacting mortgage professionals. Rates were high, so people, you know, activate a little bit more. They're trying to get a better deal, right? So they're going to research a little bit more. Really interesting from a social media perspective, it nearly doubled the amount of consumers that went on social media to get mortgage-related information. YouTube overtook Facebook as the primary social medium.

0:13:45

JOELLE: That's wild!

(On-screen text: "SUBSCRIBE" followed by an icon in the shape of a bell.)

0:13:47

SABRINA: Yeah. So people are watching videos as to how they go through the mortgage process. Before, it was Facebook. So big difference this year with regard to the platforms. So with social media, we saw that the highest users were first-time homebuyers, those that were renewing their mortgage, and younger mortgage consumers.

0:14:08

JOELLE: And what about mortgage professionals? Are homebuyers turning to mortgage professionals to get some information?

0:14:15

SABRINA: Yeah.

0:14:15

JOELLE: Yeah?

0:14:15

SABRINA: So more people actually reached out to mortgage professionals this year. So to lenders and to mortgage brokers. The satisfaction rate was also very good for both. Mortgage consumers are happy with the service and the information that they're getting from their mortgage professional, even going as far as saying "I am more prepared this year for homeownership and to manage my budget" than they were last year. So definitely a good news story. The most widely used platform or area where people are getting mortgage-related information is websites. So there was an increase in the amount of people going online. Mortgage consumers are gravitating toward lender websites, broker websites, interest-rate comparison websites, realtor listing websites, and even CMHC's website. We have a great website for homebuyers, the Homebuying Step-by-Step Guide, which shows everything you need to know to purchase a home in Canada. But at the end of the day, mortgage consumers are really going online to compare interest rates. That was the big story. Rates are coming down, so "Where can I get the best deal?" is pretty much why people were going online.

0:15:25

JOELLE: And now I want to talk about renovations, and I know that with our survey, you know, we're always looking at renovation trends. And that this is the second year in a row, you kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, this is the second year in a row that we're really drilling down on energy-efficient renovations and improvements that consumers made or plan to make. What can you tell us about renovation trends?

0:15:48

SABRINA: So 55% of mortgage consumers completed renovations in the last 3 years, and 75% plan to complete renovations in the next 5 years. Both of those numbers are up year over year compared to our survey from 2024. More than 1 in 4 completed energy-efficiency renovations, and about 30% plan to do so in the next 5 years. And those types of renovations are really paying off. 93% of those that completed energy-efficiency renovations were very satisfied with the results, and about 80% have also seen savings in their energy bills. So that's quite significant. So cost continues to be the biggest barrier to completing energy-efficiency renovations. CMHC may offer a 25% premium rebate for those that are purchasing energy-efficient homes or complete energy-efficient renovations. You can get all the details, the criteria, and the application form on our website.

Another thing that we explored with renovations this year is that more mortgage consumers actually renovated to add a secondary suite. 30% of mortgage consumers actually already had a secondary suite, and 1 out of 10 that don't have one are planning on adding one. Homeowners are keeping busy.

0:17:10

JOELLE: Thank you so much, Sabrina, for joining us in the studio. And you know, this is not only the second time that you've been with us, it's also the 25th anniversary of the Mortgage Consumer Survey. And once again, you know, I'm always so impressed with how you can just run through that data, and how your brain retains all of that information is just wild to me. My brain does not really retain numbers. So yeah, I'm looking forward to you coming back next year and talking to us about what homebuyers have to say.

0:17:43

SABRINA: Yeah. It's been a really interesting project again this year. There's a lot of questions. We spend a lot of time analyzing each question and really trying to find those key messages, what our mortgage consumers are feeling. And so I am quite pleased with this year's report, especially that it's our 25th edition. Thank you, Joelle.

0:18:02

JOELLE: Thank you, Sabrina. And thank you to our viewers. You can get a link to CMHC's full Mortgage Consumer Survey report in the description below. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more conversations that matter, here on our podcast. See you next time.

(On-screen text: SUBSCRIBE)

(Screen fades to coloured background with dark shades of red, purple, and black and geometric shapes resembling houses from the intro.)

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0:18:19

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0:18:26

VOICEOVER: Don't miss our next episodes for more real, data-driven discussions. If you're learning from and/or enjoying this podcast, please share this episode, follow us, or subscribe.

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0:18:38

VOICEOVER: Reach out! Let us know what you think. Thanks for listening, and see you next time.

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