Buying intentions among Quebecers remain the lowest in the country, according to RBC Royal Bank's 14th Annual Homeownership Survey. The poll found that 20 per cent of Quebec residents said they are likely to purchase a home in the next two years, well below the national level of 28 per cent. The proportion "very likely" to purchase is down one point from last year (6 per cent vs. 7 per cent), and is also below the national average of 9 per cent.
In fact, Quebecers (51 per cent) are most likely to say it makes more sense to wait until next year to buy a home, rather than purchase one now. According to the poll, of those who plan to buy in the next two years, 59 per cent said they are likely to buy a bigger home, while 24 per cent will be looking for something around the same size as their current residence. Seventy-eight per cent of those planning to buy will opt for a resale home.
"Similar to what we saw last year, buying intentions remain comparatively low in Quebec and they continue to show signs of softening," said Danielle Coutlée, manager, Sales Strategy & Support. "Unlike other areas in the country, Quebecers don't seem to be as certain that housing prices will rise, and they are less concerned about interest rate hikes this year."
The poll found that at 47 per cent, Quebecers are the least likely in Canada to expect housing prices to be higher by this time next year - significantly lower than the national average of 59 per cent. Quebecers were also the least likely (46 per cent) to say they are concerned about interest rate increases in 2007. Thirty-eight per cent said they expect to see mortgage rates higher in a year's time - again, the lowest percentage in the country.
While a majority of the region's residents continue to see great value in homeownership (87 per cent said buying a house or condominium is a "good" or "very good" investment) they are the least likely across the country to think so. On average, Quebec homeowners estimate the value of their homes at $155,328. They also believe their homes have risen in value by an average of 19 per cent over the last two years.
Also according to the poll, 64 per cent of Quebecers have a mortgage, second only to Ontarians and British Columbians (both at 65 per cent). On average, Quebec mortgage holders said they have $70,849 outstanding on their mortgages.
These are some of the findings of an RBC poll conducted by Ipsos Reid between January 18 and 22, 2007. The online survey is based on a randomly selected representative sample of 2,404 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within +/-2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error for residents of Quebec is +/-3.9 per cent (N=627) and the margin of error for Quebec homeowners is +/-5.4 per cent (N=334). The margin of error will be larger for other sub-groupings of the population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.
For full tabular results, please see the Ipsos Reid website at www.ipsos.ca.