Report reveals volume surges as valuation gains level off across major markets
Canadian real estate is showing signs of renewed life with home sales climbing. However, prices remain largely unchanged.
Canadian home prices were virtually flat in the third quarter of 2025, inching up just 0.1% year-over-year to $816,500, while slipping 1.2% from the previous quarter, according to the new Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Forecast.
“Canada's housing market is shifting toward balance, as easing prices, rising listings and renewed rate cuts improve affordability across most regions,” notes Phil Soper, Royal LePage’s president and CEO. “Buyers – especially in previously supply-strapped markets – have real choice and negotiating power.”
The result is a market increasingly tilted toward buyers, especially where inventory growth has cooled the pace of bidding wars.
The national picture, however, conceals wide regional variation with Greater Toronto’s aggregate price down 3.5% year-over-year, with both detached and condo segments under pressure. Greater Vancouver slipped 3.1%, while Montreal surged 4.9% and Ottawa held steady with a modest 0.3% uptick.
"Buyer sentiment is being influenced by a complex mix of economic and psychological factors," says Soper. "Despite materially improved affordability in major cities, many Canadians – particularly younger ones – remain cautious amid high post-pandemic living costs, perceived job uncertainty, and general unease about our economic prospects. It's understandable that some are waiting before making such a significant purchase."
Soper says the Bank of Canada’s September rate cut of 25 basis points to 2.5% has offered some relief.
“While mortgage rates remain above their pandemic lows, the Bank's recent rate cut is easing pressure on borrowers,” he says, while cautioning that economic uncertainty and cautious sentiment are tempering any immediate rebound.
Royal LePage now projects only a 1.0% increase in aggregate home prices in the final quarter of 2025 compared with a year earlier, a revision downward from previous forecasts, but the outlook is looking brighter.
Soper warned that housing policy must continue to focus on supply expansion to prevent a return to structural imbalances.
