New data from Statistics Canada shows multiple-property owners held between 29 and 41 per cent of the housing stock in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 2019 and 2020.
The data from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program, which includes both residential and recreational holdings, reveals multiple-property ownership accounted for 41 per cent of Nova Scotia’s housing stock, 39 per cent of New Brunswick’s, 31 per cent of Ontario’s and 29 per cent of British Columbia’s.
Multiple-property owners totalled 22 per cent of all owners in Nova Scotia, 20 per cent in New Brunswick, 16 per cent in Ontario and 15 per cent in British Columbia.
The data shows that the top 10 per cent of owners in those provinces earn more than the bottom 50 per cent combined, with the the top 10 per cent of owners in Ontario and British Columbia each earning yearly incomes above $125,000.
The same tranche of data also shows between 2018 and 2019 the number of first-time home buyers increased by 17 per cent in New Brunswick, nine per cent in Nova Scotia and six per cent in British Columbia.
The data’s release comes less than a week after the federal government announced a slew of housing measures meant to make homes more affordable for first-time buyers and temporarily less accessible for non-residents.