With the cost of homes on the rise, the typical first-time homebuyer in Canada looks different than in the past. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) 2025 survey, released in May, broke down the statistics on those who took out a mortgage for the first time between June 2023 and January 2025, including their age, income and how they saved for their down payment. Since home buyers experience different conditions in different markets, Financial Post also spoke to real estate and mortgage brokers in major metros across Canada. We look at who is buying and what it takes for them to own their first home.
How old is the typical first-time homebuyer?
Nearly half (47 per cent) of first-time homebuyers who purchased their homes in the past 18 months were between 25 and 34 years old, according to the
CMHC 2025 mortgage consumer survey
.
The age profile of the first-time buyer also depends on where they live. For example, the Prairies had the most first-timer buyers aged between 18 to 34 years, while first-time buyers in Atlantic Canada and B.C. skewed slightly older, according to CMHC.
Leah Zlatkin, a mortgage broker and chief operations officer at Mortgage Outlet Inc. based in Concord, Ont., said first-time homebuyers in the Greater Toronto Area tend to skew older in age compared with those in the Greater Horseshoe Area, or even other provinces such as in the Prairies.
Zlatkin said she often sees first-time buyers in their late twenties to mid-thirties but will occasionally work with younger buyers who are getting financial help from their parents.
“The reason for that is simply that our home prices are quite a bit more expensive,” she said. “People need a little (more time) to save up the money (especially if they) are looking for something a little bit bigger that they can grow into with the family.”
While the 25–34 age group has consistently dominated since 2019, peaking at 56 per cent in 2023 and 2024, it dipped slightly in 2025, according to CMHC. Homebuyers are getting older: Those older than 35 accounted for 39 per cent of buyers in 2025, compared with 33 per cent in 2024 and 30 per cent in 2023.
Statistics Canada data show the median age of tax filers who requested the first-time home buyer amount was 32 in 2022 (the latest year for which this data is available), compared with 30 a decade prior.
Some parts of the country have still been able to attract and retain a younger demographic, especially urban areas with lower prices.
Sean Broady, a real estate broker with Royal LePage Elite in Montreal, said the city draws many young professionals.
“Montreal is the best bang for your buck Canada wide,” Broady said. “A lot of young people are leaving other provinces to come here because they can get a condo for $500 a square foot instead of spending $1,000 a square foot like in Toronto.”
How much income does a first-time homebuyer need?
First-time homebuyers today have higher incomes than they did before, advancing across the six-figure threshold: CMHC reported a median of about $105,000 in 2025, up from the $60,000 to $90,000 range five years ago.
Zlatkin said that with townhouses and semi-detached homes in the GTA starting at at least $800,000, buyers in the area need about $200,000 in income to qualify for these homes.
Toronto residents are also reckoning with a higher
cost-of-living
in general in the expensive metro, Zlatkin said. “They need to be very strong buyers. … (They) need to be able to support both their lifestyle and (their) mortgage payments.”
According to the
Canadian Real Estate Association
(CREA), the average home price in Canada was $707,380 as of April. Average home prices were just below $1 million in Ontario and British Columbia but hovered between $300,000 to $400,000 in the Atlantic provinces and Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The majority of first-time buyers were married or common law (71 per cent) and were employed (91 per cent), reported CMHC.
“It is harder and harder to purchase (when you’re) single,” said Remi Korent, broker at Rock Solid Mortgages, licensed with Quantus Mortgage Solutions, who is based in Calgary. “A lot of people rent until they buy, or they buy when they have kids.”
More than half of first-time buyers were in households with children and 64 per cent rented (for an average of 6.3 years) before purchasing their home, according to CMHC.
But Denise MacDonell, managing associate broker at Red Door Realty in Halifax, has seen more single women in their thirties or early forties enter the
housing market
lately as well.
“I think that shift mirrors a demographic of women getting married later (or) staying single … women doing better professionally (and) not waiting to be partnered (to buy a home),” MacDonell said.
CHMC data also showed 54 per cent of first-time buyers purchased with an adult other than their partner or spouse, with younger respondents (aged 18 to 24) most likely to do so. Quebec reported the most first-time buyers taking this route.
Broady said he has seen this trend in Montreal. He has seen siblings and even friends team up to purchase property together, while others are buying and rooming with their parents, especially parents who want to downsize into smaller homes.
How are first-time homebuyers coming up with a down payment?
CMHC reported major sources contributing to the down payment included savings outside of a registered retirement savings plan (
RRSP
) at 39 per cent and savings from within a first home savings account (FHSA) at 38 per cent.
However, the “biggest, most frequent source is the gift,” said Sabrina Guay, a specialist at CMHC. More than 40 per cent of first-time buyers received cash gifts to purchase their home, with the average gift amounting to $74,570.
Guay said this too varies across provinces, with buyers in pricier provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia being more likely to rely on gifts, while buyers in the Prairie provinces depended on their savings.
The average gift amount ranged from $43,086 in the Prairies to as high as $142,812 in B.C.
Adil Dinani with Royal LePage West Real Estate Services in Vancouver, said incomes haven’t kept up with real estate prices, so parents are stepping in to help.
“Forty per cent of our first-time buyers are getting some sort of supplement to their down payment through family,” Dinani said. “They’re not able to independently make the purchase, typically.”
The CMHC survey revealed a marked increase in the number of first-time buyers living with their families or friends before purchasing their homes, at 35 per cent this year, compared with 28 per cent last year.
“To speculate, I would say it’s likely to save up or to work towards being able to qualify for that home purchase,” Guay said.
Getting financial support from family also affects how long it takes Canadians to save for their first home. As of this year, first-time buyers took an average of 3.7 years to save their down payment, CMHC reported.
But Dinani said without any financial assistance from family, these buyers are more likely to take five to seven years to save, especially in cities like Vancouver.
What kind of home are they purchasing?
The CMHC report found 48 per cent of first-time buyers purchased a single detached home, with a smaller fraction (35 per cent) owning a secondary suite as well. However, several brokers said this not only depends on
affordability
but also the kind of homes that are being built in the area.
For example, while many first-time buyers in pricey metro areas such as Vancouver and Toronto gravitate toward condos, brokers said the condo market is much softer in Halifax and Calgary.
“You can buy a condo downtown, but you can still go 15 minutes out and get a full house with the yard for the same amount of money,” Halifax’s MacDonell said, noting buyers can still find semi-detached homes for less than $500,000 in suburban areas such as Dartmouth, N.S.
Broady said first-time buyers in Montreal are most likely to purchase condos or townhouses, but some are exploring multi-unit properties they can rent out as well, especially if they are getting some financial help from parents. Others are even looking into fixer-uppers that require significant renovations.
CMHC data showed half of first-time homebuyers completed renovations, which cost them about $27,700 on average. Atlantic Canada led the way with nearly three-quarters of first-time buyers renovating their homes.
MacDonell said she has noticed a recent change with first-time buyers becoming more “budget-driven.” In previous years, these buyers would approach brokers with their desired location, home features and budget, but now she said home purchase decisions have become much more structured around what buyers can afford.
Some first-time buyers are moving outside of their province entirely, Dinani said. “If you look at interprovincial migration, (there) has been a big shift to Alberta over the last few years because you can own a home there for a third of the price and income levels are very similar (to B.C.).”
This is a trend Korent has seen as well, noting an influx of remote tech workers from B.C. and Ontario into Alberta. He has also seen first-time buyers look to Edmonton instead of Calgary, as Calgary’s home prices have increased over the past few years.
“Homebuyers are always going to chase affordability,” Korent said. “If you’re willing to move to a different place and it’s cheaper to get in the market, then people are going to chase that.”
Are cost concerns slowing first-time homebuyer demand?
About 67 per cent of first-time buyers said they had concerns or felt uncertainty during the homebuying process.
Guay said respondents in the Prairies seemed to be most concerned about the cost of living, whereas those in the Atlantic provinces were worried about interest rates. First-time buyers in Ontario were more stressed about the potential for job losses or reduced income.
Still, despite affordability concerns, Guay said the Canadian housing market is seeing more demand from first-time homebuyers in 2025 than it did last year, with first-time buyers making up 12 per cent of those who took out mortgages this year (compared with 10 per cent in 2024).
B.C and the Prairies boasted the highest share of first-time buyers (16 per cent each), while Ontarians made up the lowest, at 10 per cent.
Broady has seen Montreal buyers with smaller down payments opt for the five-year fixed term, but he has also seen some buyers, especially those with financial help from parents, gravitate toward the 30-year fixed mortgage. Dinani and Zlatkin said buyers in Vancouver and Toronto are pursuing the longest term possible, so they can spread out their payments in smaller installments.
CMHC data showed the fixed rate mortgage term continued to be the most popular option for first-time buyers — but demand plunged from 71 per cent in 2024 to 56 per cent in 2025. A quarter of respondents said they took on a variable rate mortgage (a five per cent uptick from last year), and 15 per cent used a combination of the two (10 per cent more than last year).
Guay said this increase in demand for variable rate loans was apparent among other mortgage consumers as well and suggested this could be due to consumers thinking interest rates could fall further.
The Bank of Canada began cutting its policy rate in June 2024 and held this rate steady at 2.75 per cent at its last meeting in June 2025. The CMHC survey, conducted in January, covered 3,968 mortgage consumers who completed a transaction between June 2023 and January 2025.
• Email: slouis@postmedia.com
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