With ongoing discussions about affordable housing and relocation trends in Canada, we recently discovered that more Torontonians are leaving the city than moving in (perhaps because Torontonians have to make a certain amount in order to thrive in the city). For those who do decide to stay—over half are eyeing other Canadian cities for cheaper housing. Despite these recent trends, Toronto is considered the most popular city that both Canadians and Americans are looking to move to, according to one recent study.
Kijiji conducted a comprehensive study on Canadian relocation trends, focusing on rental availability, affordability, and popularity. They found that Toronto is the top Canadian city (based on Google searches for apartment rentals in each city) that both Canadians and Americans are interested in moving to. For Canadians, Toronto is followed by Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Halifax, and Brampton, with Kitchener rounding up the top 10 most sought-after relocation destinations in the country.
In terms of individual cities—based on search volume, residents from New York, U.S., and Vaughan, ON, showed the most interest in moving to Toronto compared to people living in other cities, despite Toronto being one of the least affordable Canadian cities to live in.
Interestingly, the study found that residents of Toronto are most interested in relocating to Calgary this year. This isn’t a surprise, in recent years, Alberta has become a haven for those looking to leave Toronto, perhaps in part due to the ‘Alberta is Calling’ campaign, which hints at affordable housing, a lower cost of living, jobs, and lower taxes.
Despite the interest in moving to Toronto, Kijiji researchers found that Toronto also has the highest rental availability in Canada, with 11,941 listings. According to the Rentals.ca July 2024 rental update, asking rents for 1-bedroom units in Toronto decreased year-over-year by 4.9% to an average of $2,444 in June, compared to $1,743 in Calgary, AB (a 3.3% increase from a year ago), and $1,368 in Edmonton (a 14.4% year-over-year increase).
For the study, Kijiji used Google Trends search volume from the past year in the most populous U.S. and Canadian cities to determine search interests in relocating to different Canadian cities. They also created a meta-ranking for the top Canadian cities to move to by using internal data from Kijiji for the 25 most populated cities available.
Variables used in the meta-ranking included the total number of rental listings, the average rental prices, and population desirability score (based on average favourites, replies, and requests to view property per listing).
