Are all immigrants nearly 3years in GTA able to buy houses(townhomes or semi detached or detached) for CA$ 1million+. Do families who drop in GTA start earning CA$150k(husband) + CA$150k(wife). Unsure if single new comers are able to earn CA$200k to think about houses(not condos) for 1million+?????
Are all immigrants nearly 3years in GTA able to buy houses for 1million+
- Thread starter prseeker2017
- Start date
Also, many people do not need to be in GTA in order to buy home (townhomes or semi detached or detached). There are exhibitions and seminars held outside Canada by local developers and their partners.
Housing market in GTA is crazy. $1MM can possibly fetch you only a semi detached home (and in some areas only townhomes). Detached home's avg price is way above $1.5m for now. Salary does play a big role in how quickly you can buy. You need 5 to 20% of downpayment so lets assume you need $100K saved directionally for a million dollar home. To save that money over years you will need to save ~$3K per month. Assuming monthly avg expenses of a couple to be $4000/month, this would mean if one of you earn $120K/year, you will have $7K in hand salary in Toronto. So yes you can buy a home in 3 years in GTA with $100K downpayment. The only problem is what you will get in a $1million today will be way different from what you get in 2025. The real estate is heating up. And as you'd notice, more your salaries (as you said $300K combined), easier the equation gets for you.
But there are other housing markets in Canada going crazy. Like Kelowna, it went up nearly 30% from a year ago (even more than Toronto). That said, couldn't people sell their Kelowna home and buy a $1.5m in the GTA and won't have to wait 3 years?
Yes but that accounts for a less percentage. Now builders wont accept outland buyers after govt enforced the new rule
Many have unrealistic expectations about how long it will take to get into the housing market especially in the bigger cities. Most new immigrants and most Canadians don’t have both spouses earning 150k/yr and pretty rare to have both spouses immigrate with very well paying jobs already lined up. Even with qualifications and experience that will easily translate into the Canadian job market, Canadian employers tend to move pretty slowly when hiring new employees and often want to meet in person. Employers have had to become more flexible with covid but fitting into the office atmosphere is an important consideration in addition to qualifications. Most new immigrants end up spending multiple months after arrival trying to secure employment. With covid it may have gotten easier to secure employment before arriving in Canada because normally an in person interview would be the final interview.
For 1M$+ house lenders(banks included) mandate 20% down. That 5% down applies to houses less than 1m$. Even thou you can put 5% the stress test wont let you become eligible as you would expect.
In-person interviews were applicable only for pre-covid era. Now Employers are evaluating WFH options to save on office space. Coivd straightened out employers who were unaware of WFH that other countries in world gave without questions. Expectations are only to own a house small or big doesn't matter. With 1bed 1wash condo in GTA going for 560k to 600k its crazy!!
You are only considering the small subsection of jobs that you are able to do from home. Plenty of employees who can’t work from home. Yes covid will force many employers to offer WFH options. There will be a mix of employees who like WFH and others who would prefer being in an office. Also a max of employers some wanting to get rid of as much of their office space as possible and others who want to keep the majority of their office space. Don’t think any employer has really figured out what their workforce will look like in the next 5 years. If you both will be continuing with WFH there is no need to be in Toronto but space will be important. 1-2 bedrooms will be difficult to both live and worI in longterm"
Yeah correct not all can have wfh. But for jobs where wfh made sense in pre-covid era employers/managers wanted to see employees working in front of them, they now have gotten trained. Remote work option(where applicable) just like in US is here to stay! You have a fair point 1-2 beds with both wfh wouldnt be sufficient. Plus GTA has many job options so gotta stick around, Other cities(excluding vancouver) dont have as many options and we would be risking our jobs if we move. Saving by WFH, unsure how long it will last. Kinda sticky situation!!