The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently released the results of its 2013 Condominium Owners Survey. This is the first year CMHC has released the results of such a survey. It is intended to provide an enhanced understanding of the activity and role of condominium owners and investors in Toronto and Vancouver, two major Canadian condominium markets.
Highlights of the survey include the following results:
- 82.9% of the condominium owning households surveyed reside in their unit and 17.1% are condominium investors.
- 42.1% of condominium investors (the subset of condominium owners who own their primary residence and at least one secondary condominium unit) surveyed had no mortgage on their last purchased condominium unit.
- About half of the condominium investors surveyed rent out their last purchased unit, while one third have their last unit occupied by family.
- 25.7 per cent of condominium investors bought at least one unit in the presale phase of the project (i.e. before the start of construction phase).
Click here for the full report.
It is worth noting that the survey has been critiqued by industry professionals on a number of grounds, namely, it does not reveal the extent of foreign investment nor it does it account for investors who own a condominium in Toronto or Vancouver but live elsewhere. Furthermore, the survey does not include those buyers who have purchased units in the last five to seven years.
Special thanks to Laura Dean and David Neligan for assisting with this article.
