For most people, this question has an easy answer: if you currently live in Ottawa and you want to stay in Ottawa, you house-hunt in … Ottawa.
But what if you’re a remote worker and, even though your employer is in Winnipeg, you can live somewhere with sunlight and an occasional hill? Or you’ve lived in Halifax all your life but hate the smell of the ocean. How do you decide where to look?
As home prices in major urban centres continue to skyrocket, a lot of Canadians are becoming increasingly open to less-expensive areas. According to a recent survey by real estate giant Royal LePage, 60% of big-city renters said they’d consider a move to a smaller city. Twenty-nine percent of GTA residents said they’d leave for Québec City under the right circumstances, and 19% of Vancouver renters said they’d consider Edmonton.
This trend isn’t just a cost consideration, though. People like being closer to nature — and escape. “People just didn’t even consider it an option before,” says Royal LePage chief operating officer Karen Yolevski. But now, the post-pandemic rise of remote work has put smaller cities on the table. “As Canada grows and our population expands rapidly, there’s going to be more people that say, ‘This is too much, the traffic is too much, the subway breaking down is too much.’”
If you’re trying to get the most value for your money, Yolevski says, there’s one factor that buyers too often over-prioritize: size. “People are still very, very keen on big homes, lots of land. But bigger homes are more expensive to buy, more expensive to maintain. They’re not as easy to just lock up and go on a vacation from.” Yes, she’s saying size doesn’t matter — or at least not as much as you might assume. It’s probably worth sacrificing some square footage for a happier, more satisfying life beyond your front door.
