About 30% of Canadians now say condos have lost investment appeal: survey

A new survey from Rates.ca shows 30 per cent of Canadians no longer think a condo is a good investment, but about a third of those 18 to 35 still see it as a good choice.

Are condos still a good investment?

According to a new survey by Rates.ca, about 30 per cent of Canadians say condos, once seen as a good investment, no longer hold that same appeal.

The survey of 1,568 Canadians also found that just 11 per cent say they would buy a condo as an investment, while 57 per cent said they would not buy a condominium for any reason.

This was the first time Rates.ca commissioned the survey, so the organization could not provide historical data for comparisons.

“Investor confidence has definitely softened,” Kevin Wong, a mortgage agent at Swivel Mortgage Group Inc. in Ontario, said in the report.

“Some of my investor clients are selling properties and reallocating their funds to other investments, like the stock market or high-growth regions like Alberta.”

Rates.ca notes that high inventory levels are also pushing prices down, meaning while buyers might have an easier time getting into the condo market, sellers may be grappling with oversupply.

According to Statistics Canada, two in five condo apartments in five provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia, were used as an investment property between 2016 and 2020.