Manitoba: A land of homeownership opportunity

A recent review of data from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) found that Manitoba is a haven for both young and first-time home buyers. The program, which looks at the characteristics of buyers of residential properties in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Northwest Territories, found that in 2019, the median price of a home sold in Manitoba was less than half that of a property sold in British Columbia. Manitoba also had the youngest buyers on average and the highest share of recent immigrant buyers.

Manitoba has the highest share of young homebuyers

Manitoba had the lowest median age of homebuyers according to the CHSP, at 39 in 2019.

Over one-third of (36.6%) all home buyers in Manitoba in 2019 were younger than 35 years, also the youngest average age.

Thompson (45.0%) and Winkler (42.9%) had the largest share of young homeowners in the province in 2020. Over one-third of home buyers in Winnipeg were aged 20 to 34, the highest rate among Canada’s largest cities currently covered by the CHSP.

Young buyers in Manitoba paid $270,000 on average for their home, less than half of what their counterparts paid in British Columbia.

Median sales prices in Manitoba are less than half those in British Columbia

Real estate sales show that one in six home buyers in 2019 were recent immigrants, that is, those who arrived in Canada in 2010 or later.

Lower prices help explain the ability of recent immigrants to enter the real estate market, since the overall median sale price of properties in Manitoba was $258,000 in 2019, less than half the median price of properties sold in British Columbia in the same year ($552,000).

However, the median price of properties purchased by recent immigrants in Manitoba ($292,000) was higher than the median for all buyers in the province. Moreover, the median price-to-income ratio of recent immigrants—which measures the level of financial burden faced by buyers when purchasing residential real estate—was higher than the median for all buyers (3.4 versus 2.6) in the province.

Buying as a group may also help recent immigrants afford a home. Data show that four in five recent immigrants in Manitoba bought their home as a pair and 6.1% bought in a group of three or more, while 13.5% were single buyers.

Approximately four in five recent immigrant home buyers in Manitoba were admitted through economic categories in 2020. Among all recent immigrant buyers, just under three-quarters entered Canada through the Provincial Nominee Program.

Manitoba had the largest share of recent immigrant homeowners currently covered by the CHSP, at 6.2%.

To learn more about housing in Canada, check out the Canadian Housing Statistics Program releases in the Daily and the 2021 Census release “To buy or to rent: The housing market continues to be reshaped by several factors as Canadians search for an affordable place to call home.”