Homeowners who have more than one property comprised over a quarter of the purchases made in Ontario’s housing market during the first months of 2022.
In its Market Insights report for Q2-2022, Teranet Inc. stated that multi-property owners accounted for over 26 per cent of purchases made during Q1-2022 in Ontario.
Since 2017, Teranet Inc. explained that the acquisition of Ontario homes by multi-property owners have been on an incline and reached a peak last year as this group made over 99,000 purchases in 2021. Between 2017 and 2021, multi-property owners have been the biggest buyer segment, making up 22 per cent of Ontario home purchases.
As of April 30th, purchases made by multi-property owners over the years have culminated to an ownership rate of 24.6 per cent of all Ontario residential properties.
Most multi-property owners possess two homes
The majority of individuals who have more than one piece of property in Ontario tend to own at least two residences, usually within the same location.
More than 53 per cent of properties held by multi-property owners are owned by those with two residences in their portfolio, which makes up 13 per cent of Ontario’s property base. Meanwhile, 29 per cent of the properties owned by multi-property owners have four or more residences in their portfolio, representing seven per cent of the province’s property base.
“The high proportion of multi-property owners who have only two properties in their portfolio suggest that most multi-property owners are seeking value from real estate in a passive way, as opposed to those who are leveraging real estate as an active business venture,” Teranet’s report explained.
By region, most of the housing stock held by multi-property owners is located in Middlesex, comprising 33.6 per cent of the market. This is followed by Muskoka and Rainy River at 33.4 per cent and 32.1 per cent. In Toronto specifically, 29 per cent of the housing stock is owned by multi-property owners as of April 30th. More than half (53 per cent) of those homes are owned by those who have all of their property holdings in Toronto, the majority of which are condo units (59 per cent).
Multi-home owners are getting younger, prefer non-condo properties
Those who own more than one home seem to prefer ground-oriented residences — of the properties possessed by multi-property owners, 72 per cent are non-condo properties and 28 per cent are condo units.
Over 70 per cent of the homes held by multi-property owners are owned by people who have all of their properties in the same region.
“This points to the likelihood of investment properties close to a principal residence for ease of maintenance or purchases for related parties (such as children) for convenience and connection,” said the report.
Multi-property owners appear to be getting younger. Over the past five years, the average age of a multi-property owner has been between 44 and 51 years old, regardless of the number of multi-properties they have in their portfolio. However, in 2017, the peak of the age distribution curve for two-property owners was 42 to 47 years old, which has since shifted to 39 to 43 years old as of 2021.
Since 2017, 42 per cent of multi-property owners have not sold another property between 2000 and the time of their most recent multi-property purchase. Twenty-seven per cent have previously sold one property at the time of their latest multi-property purchase, 14 per cent have sold two and 17 per cent of multi-property buyers have sold three or more homes prior to the current purchase.
“The data suggests that those who have sold three or more properties may be indicative of multi-property purchases that are more short-term in nature,” noted the report.
