First-Time Homebuyer Market Snapshot

In this edition, we focus on activity amongst Ontario’s first-time homebuyers up to June 30, 2026. In analysing the Ontario housing market, Teranet segments property purchases into the following categories:  

• First-time homebuyers: Property purchases by buyers who claimed the Ontario land transfer tax exemption for first-time homebuyers.  To qualify for this exemption, the buyer(s) must not have purchased property anywhere in the world.  

• Movers: This category of buyers moved from one property in Ontario to another. They have sold their sole, existing property and purchased another property within a period of time. 

• Multi-property owners: Property purchases by buyers who, at the time of the purchase, also own other properties in Ontario. The properties purchased by this group of buyers could represent a principal residence, an investment property, or a recreation property. 

• Other: All other buyers. This could include buyers from outside of Ontario or Canada, or re-entry into the property market after an extended absence. 

First-time homebuyers continue to overwhelmingly favour non-condo properties, which made up 70.3% of their purchases in 2026, which is essentially unchanged from 69.8% in 2016.  

The average transfer value for first-time homebuyer purchases reached $715,000 for non-condo properties and $561,000 for condo properties in 2026. The relatively narrow gap suggests non-condo purchases by first-time homebuyers are concentrated outside the core Toronto market, where lower-priced housing remains more attainable. 

First-time homebuyers continue to choose resale condominiums over new construction: resale units accounted for 70.9% of first-time homebuyer condo purchases in 2026 (15,194 units), compared with 24.3% for new builds (5,204 units).

New-build purchases posted a modest year-over-year gain of 8.6% even as resale volumes declined 6.9%, a small but notable improvement in new-build share relative to 2025 (21.3%). Resale units continue to offer greater accessibility and affordability for buyers entering the market.

Toronto remains the clear centre of condo activity among first-time homebuyers, accounting for 48,425 condo purchases from June 2025 to July 2026, well ahead of Peel (12,773) and York Region (8,900).

Non-condo purchases, by contrast, are far more dispersed across the province. Toronto still leads (18,284) but sizable volumes are also concentrated in GTA-adjacent regions: Durham (17,896), Peel (18,021), York Region (13,652), Halton (8,269), as well as further out markets including Waterloo (13,215), Wentworth/Hamilton (11,498), Simcoe (12,140) and Ottawa-Carleton (17,654). This pattern reinforces that first-time homebuyers are increasingly purchasing based on affordability, expanding beyond Toronto’s core in search of attainable ownership.

Big 5 Banks remain the preferred source of financing across first-time homebuyer segments, used in 60.9% of solo purchases and 60.6% of two-party purchases in 2026.  

A notable gap persists in mortgage-free purchases: solo first-time homebuyers purchased without financing 8.6% of the time in 2026, down from a peak of 11.4% in 2024 but still well above the 1.9% rate seen among two-party buyers. 

In summary:  

• First-time homebuyers are now the dominant purchasers of non-condo properties in Ontario, and rank second in condo purchases behind multi-property owners  

• First-time homebuyer condo purchases remain concentrated in the GTA, while non-condo purchases are spread more broadly across the province, reflecting a search for affordability  

• Most condos purchased by first-time homebuyers are resale units, though new-build share ticked up modestly in 2026  

• Solo first-time homebuyer condo purchases have increased since 2022, reversing a longer-term shift toward multi-party buying  

• Solo purchases of both condo and non-condo properties are led by buyers aged 25 to 30, while two-party purchases are most common among those aged to 30 to 35  

• Solo first-time homebuyers, especially those aged 25 to 30, show a notably higher rate of purchasing without financing, pointing to possible reliance on alternative funding sources  

Teranet’s Data Analytics team will continue to monitor these trends and the behaviours of Ontario’s buyers and sellers to bring you new insights in future editions of these TeraIntelligence reports.  

If you need more information about the data presented in this report, the Teranet Data Science Lab can help you dig deeper. Our team will work closely with you to answer your questions with insights from our authoritative databases.  

Connect with a Teranet account manager if you’d like to learn more.