Janelle Brooks

The number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems climbed a further 0.5% on a month-over-month basis in July 2026, marking a fourth consecutive monthly gain.

“At the national level, July’s housing data was a carbon copy of the June numbers, with home sales edging up a little further, listings down, and prices remaining stable,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “The more interesting story over the last few months has been below the surface of the headline national numbers, where markets across the country are generally moving back towards balance. That’s true on the Prairies, in Quebec, and on the East Coast, where a majority of sellers’ markets have been steadily cooling off over the past year. More recently, it’s also been true of the markets in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe, where formerly buyers’ or borderline buyers’ markets have largely shifted back into balanced market territory.”

July Highlights:

• National home sales edged up 0.5% month-over-month.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 5.3% below July 2025.
• The number of newly listed properties declined 1.6% on a month-over-month basis.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) edged up 0.1% month-over-month and was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was up 0.2% on a year-over-year basis in July 2026.

In this article, the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) is releasing data on investors (i.e., owners of at least one residential property that they do not use as their principal residence) in the residential housing market by investor size. Concentration in the residential housing market is analyzed for the 2022 reference year in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.

Highlights

• Small-scale investors (individuals) owned the largest share of investment properties in terms of assessed value across all the provinces studied, except Nova Scotia, where institutional investors, or the top 0.1% of investors in terms of the value of investment properties owned in the province, owned the largest share of investment properties.
• Of the six provinces studied, institutional investors owned 0.1% (Prince Edward Island and Manitoba) to 0.4% (Ontario) of the total stock of houses. The category “houses” includes single-detached houses, semi-detached houses, row houses and mobile homes.
• Among rental properties (investment properties not for personal use), 16.6% of their assessed value was owned by institutional investors in Prince Edward Island, compared with 38.0% in Nova Scotia.
• More than half of the total assessed value of rental properties built since 2011 were owned by institutional investors in Nova Scotia (63.1%) and New Brunswick (61.5%).
• In all 12 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) analyzed, the results showed a non-concentrated and potentially competitive rental market in CMAs and their census subdivisions (CSDs). Toronto and Vancouver had the least concentrated markets.

This report is the second annual release of the New Housing Market Report series, following the initial 2024 release. Data collection was expanded to Alberta in the second half of 2025, and the results are included in this report. Data collection will be expanded to Ontario in 2026, followed by Quebec at a later stage. List and sale prices, as well as other housing characteristics, were collected for new single-detached houses, semi-detached houses, row houses and condominium apartment dwellings (including low- and high-rise condominium apartments, stacked townhomes, duplexes, and triplexes).

National highlights

Slower pace for the new home market: Nationally, the number of for-sale housing starts (for homeowner and condominium intended markets) declined 10% year over year in 2025. This decrease in starts, along with the 35% yearly increase (December 2025) in the inventory of completed and unabsorbed units, indicated a slower housing market in 2025 compared with 2024.

Living area

Single-detached houses in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 square feet were most commonly reported in most of the CMAs covered in 2025. New single-detached houses were the most common dwelling type in 2025 in all CMAs outside British Columbia covered by this report. In the British Columbia CMAs, condominium apartments were the most popular. Units in the range of 500 to 1,000 square feet were most common in the CMAs where condominium data were available.