Vancouver, Surrey top list of most expensive mortgages compared to rent payments
A recent housing report showcases the price discrepancy between mortgage payments and rent in major British Columbia cities.
Zoocasa.com found that Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria all have average mortgage payments above rent prices.
Vancouver tops the list of 26 Canadian cities with an average mortgage payment of $5,353 compared to an average rent of $3,180.
Surrey was third on the list behind Toronto with an average mortgage of $4,856 while rent sits at $2,291.
Further down the list is Victoria with mortgages averaging $3,930 and rental properties asking $2,376.
Zoocasa compared the costs of renting and owning through some assumptions for consistency in its report.
The website explained that it used average rent prices for one and two bedroom units from Rentals.ca based on listing prices in December. The mortgages were calculated assuming a 20 per cent down payment and a fixed five-year rate of 4.84 per cent over 25 years.
Mortgage amounts were calculated using the December 2023 average home sale benchmark for each city and the best interest rate available at the time the data was collected.
The mortgage amounts were based on the five-year fixed mortgage rate and are not reflective of current rates.
“Why is it that we see higher mortgage costs relative to rent in places like Vancouver and Toronto and the answer is people expect prices to rise,” said Tom Davidoff, University of British Columbia housing expert.
“So you’re going to lose this year but the hope is down the road when you sell you gain.”
Davidoff says with average home prices above $1 million in Vancouver, a home buyer would need to put down 20 per cent. To do so, many would be tasked with saving for a lengthy amount of time while also paying high rent prices.
“That’s at least a $200,000 down if you don’t have the bank of dad and mom working for you,” said Davidoff.
He remains optimistic that building additional homes on government-owned properties is a good first step to providing affordable options.
For those looking to get out of the South Coast market, Zoocasa listed a few cities where the average mortgage payments and rent are nearly at par or in favour of ownership.
In Winnipeg, the average rent was listed at $1,526 per month, whereas the mortgage payment based on the average home cost amounted to $1,521.
The gap between renting and mortgage payments was $54 in Quebec City and $62 in Regina.
Edmonton and Calgary weren’t far behind with both rent prices ranging between $250 and $650 under average mortgage payments.
With files from CTV's Natasha O'Neill
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
The death toll in Kharkiv attack rises to 14 as Zelenskyy warns of Russian troop movements
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia is preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine's northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in an aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store in the city of Kharkiv.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels freed over 100 war prisoners, the Red Cross says
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday released more than 100 war prisoners linked to the country’s long-running conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
No sign Canada has a plan to reach NATO defence spending target: U.S. NATO ambassador
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says she has seen no indication that Canada has a plan to reach the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.