Priced out of Ontario, homebuyers turn their eyes to the Calgary real estate market

As Ontario's sizzling real estate market puts home ownership out of reach for many Canadians, a growing number of prospective buyers are looking west.

CALGARY — As Ontario’s sizzling real estate market puts home ownership out of reach for many Canadians, a growing number of prospective buyers are looking west in hopes of achieving their white-picket-fence dreams.

Like newlyweds Vineet Mrug and Kushbu Mistry, who relocated to Calgary from their hometown of Toronto last year, some residents of the GTA and other hot Ontario markets are moving to Alberta for what they believe is their last opportunity to own an affordable piece of real estate in a large Canadian city.

“We entertained the idea (of staying in Toronto), but it was very short-lived, just because of the sheer price of homes,” said Mrug, adding he and his wife made the move with the intention of starting a family soon.

“In Ontario, especially Toronto, within our budget we were restricted to a two-bedroom condo. And that really would not have cut it for us, with the kind of plans that we had.”

Mrug and Mistry ultimately purchased a 250 square metre home with a walkout basement and a large backyard in Calgary’s northwest neighbourhood of Valley Ridge.

“We got three times the amount of house for the same amount of money,” Mrug said. “We’re very happy with our decision.”

Mrug and Mistry’s experience is not unique. A quick perusal of housing-related forums on online mediums like Reddit turns up dozens of recent inquiries from GTA residents asking about weather, commute times and popular neighbourhoods in Alberta cities, especially Calgary.

Realtors in the western province are also buzzing with anecdotes about what they say is an unusually high number of inquiries from Ontario. Those stories appear to be backed up by Statistics Canada data, which says Alberta led the country in interprovincial migration in the fourth quarter of 2021, for the first time since 2015. On a net basis, the majority of Alberta’s new interprovincial migrants in the fourth quarter came from Ontario.