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“Much of that wealth isn’t sitting in a bank account. It’s sitting on a piece of land with a front door.”
The Great Canadian Housing Wealth Transfer Has Already Begun
Trillions of dollars of Canadian wealth are concentrated in older households, and much of it is connected to real estate. As families begin thinking about what comes next, the family home is becoming part of a much bigger conversation.
Canada is entering one of the largest intergenerational transfers of wealth in its history.
But here is what makes this particularly interesting for homeowners:
Much of that wealth isn’t sitting in a bank account. It’s sitting on a piece of land with a front door.
For generations of Canadians who bought homes decades ago, particularly in communities across Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington and the GTA, extraordinary growth in real estate values has created substantial household wealth.
Now, as those homeowners move into the next chapter of their lives, an important question is emerging:
What do we want the wealth we’ve built in our home to do for us and for our family?
And increasingly, families are answering that question long before an inheritance ever takes place.
The Numbers Are Enormous
Canadian households now hold approximately $18.6 trillion in net worth, according to Statistics Canada.
And that wealth isn’t evenly distributed among generations.
Canadians aged 55 and older hold approximately 61% of household wealth.
Ontario alone accounts for approximately $7.4 trillion in family net worth, and the median net worth of an Ontario family was $665,600 in Statistics Canada’s 2023 Survey of Financial Security.
For Canadian senior families, median net worth had reached approximately $1.1 million.
There is another number that tells an even more remarkable story.
Among Canadians aged 55 to 64 who owned their home and had an employer pension, median net worth was approximately $1.4 million.
For people of the same age who rented and had no employer pension?
Just $11,900.
That’s an extraordinary difference, and it demonstrates just how important home ownership has been in building wealth for an entire generation of Canadians.
The Family Home Has Become a Wealth Engine
Real estate equity represented approximately 42% of Canadian household wealth in Statistics Canada’s 2023 Survey of Financial Security.
Think about what that means here in the GTA.
A couple who purchased a detached home in Mississauga, Etobicoke, Toronto or Oakville 30 or 40 years ago may have paid a fraction of what that property is worth today.
They may not think of themselves as particularly wealthy.
Yet the home they’ve lived in, raised children in and paid off over decades could now represent $1 million, $1.5 million, $2 million or more.
For many families, their home has quietly become one of their largest financial assets.
And that is where the Great Wealth Transfer becomes much more than a story about inheritance.
Because the Transfer Has Already Started
Younger Canadians aren’t simply waiting to inherit their parents’ wealth someday.
Families are increasingly sharing that wealth during their lifetimes.
Statistics Canada found that among homeowners under 35, approximately one third had received family assistance specifically related to purchasing their home.
The Bank of Canada has also found a significant increase in parents co signing mortgages for first time buyers. The proportion increased from roughly 4% in 2004 to approximately 11% in 2025, with parental involvement particularly prevalent in expensive markets such as Toronto and Vancouver.
And then there is Toronto.
Statistics Canada examined properties owned by Canadians born in the 1990s and looked at how frequently a parent was also an owner.
In Toronto, the figure was an extraordinary 27.2%.
More than one in four.
The Great Wealth Transfer isn’t something that’s simply coming.
In Canadian real estate, we can already see it happening.
It Changes the Meaning of Downsizing
For years, downsizing has usually been discussed in terms of square footage.
The kids are gone. The house is too large. There are stairs to climb, gardens to maintain and rooms nobody uses anymore.
But there is another side to downsizing that deserves much more attention.
It can unlock choices.
Imagine a couple living in a mortgage free home worth $1.6 million.
They decide to sell and purchase a beautiful condo for $900,000.
Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity that had been locked inside the walls of their home becomes available.
What happens to it?
There isn’t one answer.
Some may invest it to create additional retirement income.
Some may travel.
Some may create a financial cushion for future needs.
Some may help a child with a down payment.
Some may help grandchildren with education or their first home.
And some will simply enjoy the freedom of knowing that the wealth they spent decades building is finally available to them.
That changes the downsizing conversation considerably.
It’s no longer simply:
“Do we need this much house?”
It becomes:
“What could this house allow us to do next?”
The Inheritance Conversation Is Changing Too
Among Canadian homeowners who had received an inheritance, Statistics Canada found that the median amount increased from approximately $67,000 in 2019 to $85,100 in 2023, even after adjusting the numbers for inflation.
Industry estimates have suggested that approximately $1 trillion could ultimately move from Canadian baby boomers to younger generations as part of the Great Wealth Transfer.
But inheritance isn’t the only way that wealth moves between generations.
Increasingly, parents are asking another question:
Do we want to help our children someday, or would we rather help them while we’re here to see what that help makes possible?
For some families, that might mean helping a child buy their first home.
For others, it could mean helping a son or daughter move into a home large enough for a growing family.
It could mean helping grandchildren.
Or it may mean doing none of those things and using the equity to create a more comfortable and secure retirement.
Every family will make that decision differently.
And they should.
There Is Another Side to This Story
The Great Wealth Transfer will also create a growing divide.
Not every young Canadian has parents who own valuable real estate.
Not every family has an inheritance coming.
And not every homeowner can afford to give away part of their wealth.
That matters.
When one first time buyer can receive $150,000 from their parents and another has to save every dollar of their down payment themselves, they’re competing in the same housing market from very different starting lines.
Statistics Canada’s research increasingly shows a relationship between parents’ housing wealth and the likelihood that their children will become homeowners themselves.
In other words, housing wealth is beginning to pass from one generation to another not simply as money, but as opportunity.
That may become one of the defining issues in Canadian housing over the next decade.
A Different Conversation About Your Home
For many homeowners approaching retirement, the family home represents far more than its current market value.
It holds memories.
Children grew up there.
Birthdays happened there.
There may be pencil marks somewhere showing how tall the grandchildren became.
Selling a home like that isn’t purely a financial decision.
But neither should the financial opportunity it represents be ignored.
Your home may have spent decades doing one job extraordinarily well:
Giving your family a place to live.
Perhaps its next job is different.
It might help fund retirement.
It might provide the freedom to travel.
It might make a move to a condominium possible.
It might help a child enter the housing market.
It might create opportunities for grandchildren.
Or it might simply provide financial security and peace of mind for the years ahead.
And sometimes, the right decision is to stay exactly where you are.
The important part is understanding your options before making the decision.
This Is Where We Believe Our Role Is Changing Too
At TB Realty Group, we’ve spent decades helping people buy and sell homes.
But for homeowners entering this stage of life, we believe the conversation needs to begin before anyone talks about putting a For Sale sign on the lawn.
It starts with understanding what your real estate is worth.
What your choices might look like.
What selling would unlock.
What staying would mean.
Where you could go next.
And, most importantly, what you want the next chapter of your life to look like.
Because this isn’t really a conversation about selling houses.
It’s about helping people understand what their real estate means within the next chapter of their lives.
The Great Canadian Wealth Transfer may ultimately move an extraordinary amount of money from one generation to another.
But behind those trillions of dollars will be millions of individual family decisions.
And for many Canadian families, one of the biggest decisions will begin with a very familiar question:
What should we do with the house?
Sources
Statistics Canada, Survey of Financial Security, 2023
Statistics Canada, Familial support in entering the Canadian housing market
Statistics Canada, Parents and children in the Canadian housing market
Statistics Canada, National Balance Sheet and Financial Flow Accounts
Bank of Canada, research on parental co signing and first time homebuyers
Vanguard Canada, Generational Wealth Survey
Statistics and estimates are based on the most recently available research cited above and may reflect different reference periods.