Seniors rarely downsize — here's why that's hurting first-time homebuyers

CTV News

4 days ago

A real estate sign is displayed in front of a house in the Riverdale area of Toronto on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler
Realtor Barry Lebow specializes in helping seniors downsize — moving out of the family homes they've lived in for decades to a smaller place that's a better fit for their aging lifestyle.
From the outside, that might look like the natural progression: feeding a healthy bit of turnover into the housing supply as move-up buyers seek their own family home.
But the reality is a bit different when it comes time to sell, Lebow, who works in the Greater Toronto Area, said in an interview.
'Our customers are not always happy customers,' he said. 'Almost all seniors do not want to move.'
Experts say it's a myth that seniors who own their homes are keen to downsize to fund their retirements, when the reality is they're largely staying put, in part because they don't like the downsizing options, making it harder for young prospective buyers to break into the housing market.
Seniors are in fact the demographic that's least likely to move, according to data from the 2016 census.
'It's actually quite rare,' said Mike Moffatt, founding director of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa.
Lebow said that when seniors do move, it's often because they're facing mobility or money issues — or both.
He acknowledged there's a type of older Canadian who's keen to cash out on the family home, move into a smaller condo or apartment and take on a new lifestyle. But these are the unicorns, he said.
In his work, it's common to come across seniors with three- or four-bedroom houses and no children at home to fill them anymore. More space than they need, in all likelihood, but no motivation to let it go.
'Moving is a traumatic experience,' Lebow said, whether it's the financial cost or the emotional toll of changing addresses and purging years of accumulated belongings.
Beyond the typical home showings and paperwork, his job has ranged from rehoming a pet dog who couldn't be accommodated in a new abode to acting as de facto mediator when the prospect of mom or dad downsizing becomes a tense family conflict.
Some of his clients are also facing cognitive decline, Lebow said, and only see their real estate agent as the guy trying to throw them out of their home.
'Believe me, I've been yelled at,' Lebow said.
A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report from November 2023 also found that while there was a bit of a shift toward downsizing as Canadians age, that trend is still limited to a minority of older households.
There's also minimal movement to condos or rental properties as Canadians age, the report found.
Data from CMHC indicates the 'sell rate'— the proportion of Canadians older than 75 who are cashing out of the housing market — fell steadily between 1991 and 2021.
Canadians are living longer and might also be in better financial shape as they get older, the agency said, letting them age in place.
'In order for them to leave, they would need something that met their needs as much. And often, that doesn't exist,' Moffatt said.
Among the biggest factors motivating — or hindering — a move are cost and lifestyle, he said.
Many seniors still want to be able to garden and host family over the holidays, he said, which makes a one-or-two bedroom condo in the downtown core unappealing.
Moffatt said many older Canadians are keen to stay in their existing neighbourhoods, but smaller options are not readily available.
Modern infill units set up for street-level access in older, residential neighbourhoods are the kinds of options many seniors need to give moving a second thought.
The kind of sixplex-unit zoning recently up for debate at Toronto city council would create the kinds of units that would be right for many would-be downsizers, Moffatt noted.
Toronto ultimately decided last month to broaden sixplex zoning to only some wards, leaving the others to opt in if they choose.
Moving houses is also expensive when it comes to hiring movers, staging costs and the myriad of taxes and fees for real estate agents and lawyers.
Measures to reduce the tax burden seniors face when moving can help to encourage more turnover of family homes, Moffatt said.
The Liberal government tabled legislation in May to waive the federal GST on new homes, but it only applies to first-time homebuyers.
Moffatt said it would 'absolutely' help improve supply in the housing market if that policy were extended to downsizing seniors. Such a move could sweeten the deal for seniors who are open to getting into a smaller condo unit but don't see the financial value in the move.
That could spur a positive domino effect in the market: Moffatt explained that when move-up buyers are able to leave behind their starter homes to take on seniors' larger properties, that opens up more supply at the bottom of the housing ladder for first-time buyers.
The Canadian Press reached out to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to ask if the federal government would consider expanding the GST rebate to seniors.
A Finance Canada spokesperson did not mention seniors in their response, only saying in an email that the GST rebate is meant to help first-time buyers enter the housing market by lowering upfront costs to buying a home and spurring the construction of new housing across Canada.
'Incentivizing or reducing the barriers to building housing across the board benefits everyone,' Moffatt said.
'It is kind of an irony, but one of the best things we can do to help first-time homebuyers is to make it easier for seniors to move into new housing.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press