Canadian home buyers remain cautious amid economic uncertainty

It's psychological more than its number, as long as economic pressures continue to make people anxious, we won't see a meaningful reovery.

Author of the article:

Paul Barker  •  Special to Postmedia Network

Published May 09, 2026  •  3 minute read

Joel Fox, chief operating officer of Ownright, a digital real estate platform, says both homebuyers and developers are increasingly stuck in a wait-and-see mindset. “Many housing projects just aren’t working out right now. Costs are high, financing is tight and even where there’s demand, developers are hesitant to commit.”

Falling home prices may not be enough to get buyers back into the market, Canadians are holding back because of issues outside their control, including cost of living, concerns about unemployment and economic uncertainty, says Joel Fox, COO of Ownright, a digital real estate platform.

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Furthermore, U..S. policy and tariffs are weighing on people’s minds, says Fox.

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Fox was reacting to numbers from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) indicating  in March that compared to the same time period 12 months previous, the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts in Canada decreased six per cent (235.852 units) compared to February (250,961units).

Mathieu Laberge, CHMC’s chief economist pointed to a continued loss of momentum in housing construction. “While actual starts increased compared to a year ago, this largely reflects the exceptionally low level of construction activity in the first quarter of last year,” he said.

Fox says that many housing projects “just aren’t working out right now. Costs are high, financing is tight and even where there’s demand, developers are hesitant to commit because the macroeconomic outlook is just so uncertain.

“Gone are the days when housing felt like a guaranteed investment; buyers, sellers and developers are playing the waiting game. You still see activity, especially in rentals, but overall, it feels like the market is just treading rather than really moving forward.”

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As for the findings from the CMHC, he blames those on a huge amount of uncertainty caused by rising tariffs and a litany of geopolitical issues, which “is increasingly becoming too much to bear for builders. It just not make sense for them to commit to what they need to commit to in the world that we are operating in right now.”

And, Fox adds, the uncertainty extends to home buyers as well, “which is why we have been in this holding pattern across most notable metrics in the housing space. We thought last year was going to be much better from a housing perspective than 2024 was and then thought we would see a rebound this year, but we’re just not seeing it.

“As long as these economic pressures continue to make people anxious, we won’t see a meaningful recovery. It’s psychological more than a numbers game at this point.”

Current conditions are also impacting his own business.

“Our own deal flow will rise and fall with the activity in the real estate market,” says Fox. “If we’re expecting market of X, and the market is five per cent below that, that’s naturally going to flow through to our business. We’re seeing that, but we’re also finding our ways to grow our business while operating in an environment where the market is just lower than we expected it to be.”

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As far as how it relates to how Ownright works with its clients, which include residential buyers and sellers, and also the real estate agents and mortgage brokers that serve them, Fox says the advice to sellers is as follows: “Given the state of uncertainty, we’re telling sellers to be really careful to

what conditions they agree to in the sale of their home, just because people are trying to build those into to an agreement to give themselves an out.”

“And then conversely, we encourage buyers to build an off-ramp for them. On one hand, as we look at lour business and our overall numbers, of course, the market has an impact on it, but we’re finding ways around that, but it also has an impact on the discussions that we have with our referral partners and the clients that we serve.”

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