More than 90% of millennials are concerned about affording a home in the GTA
By Newinhomes on Oct 02, 2018
The Building Industry and Land Development Association, along with the Toronto Real Estate Board, released its final set of data from their Ipsos poll regarding voters’ concerns in the upcoming municipal election.
In this data set, BILD and TREB discovered that the vast majority of millennials in the GTA are concerned about affording a home in the Greater Toronto Area, but some optimism is present.
When asked if they were concerned about today’s youth affording a home in the GTA, 94% of millennials said yes. Among respondents aged 35-54 years, 84% are concerned, and 80% of those aged 55 or older are concerned. Nearly 70% believe their children will not be able to afford a home in the community where they grew up.
“According to a recent Centre for Urban Research and Land Development study, there are about 730,000 millennials living in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) who may be planning to move on from living in their parents’ homes and from sharing a dwelling with roommates in the next ten years, potentially creating 500,000 new households,” says Dave Wilkes, BILD President and CEO.
In one of the other recent data sets, the results showed that 87% of GTA residents believe building new homes is important to address housing affordability. Oddly enough, 41% of millennials believe the GTA is prepared for all the new residents expected to move here in the next few years. GTA residents aged 55 and over are less optimistic with only 27% feeling that the GTA is prepared. Respondents aged 35-54 were also slightly less optimistic than millennials with only 31% thinking the GTA can provide enough housing.
“In the next decade, we are likely to be part of a significant housing shift in our region as a large wave of millennials start looking for a place to live of their own,” added Wilkes. “Add the estimated 115,000 new residents that come to the GTA every year and the area will see itself in a housing crisis. I urge voters and candidates to learn more about BILD’s recommendations at www.buildforgrowth.ca.”
One segment of data that shocked us was that only 60% of GTA residents value walkable and bikeable neighbourhoods that are close to shopping, entertainment, and government services. This percentage is actually a lot, but we just thought it’d be higher. 56% prefer easy access to transit and 54% prefer to be close to school and/or work. It’s not surprising to see that 86% believe it’s important for young families to afford to live and work in the GTA without having to commute over an hour.
“With a municipal election just a few short weeks away, the public has an opportunity to ask candidates to commit to policies that will make it easier to fill their housing needs. GTA homebuyers do not have adequate choice in housing available for sale or rent and municipal government policy is one of the key reasons,” says John DiMichele, Chief Executive Officer of TREB. “They can visit unlockmyhousingoptions.ca for a quick and easy way to send a short message to candidates, and the site does all the work for you.”
