Is Ontario overlooking our biggest housing bottleneck?

Housing experts say time is right to focus on aging baby boomers, many of whom are left with dew options as their housing need changes.

Author of the article:

Paul Barker  •  Special to Postmedia Network

Published Jul 31, 2026  •  2 minute read

“When older Canadians can’t transition into the right housing, it reduces turnover across the housing market, limiting opportunities for younger families looking to purchase larger homes, adding more pressure to an already tough market,” says Joel Fox, COO, Ownright.

At the same time much thought and taxpayer’s money is being spent on how best to fix the chronic long-term care crisis in Ontario, it appears a key segment of the senior population who do not need assistance are being ignored when it comes to creation of a new housing strategy.

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According to Joel Fox, the chief operating officer of Ownright, a digital real estate platform, the time is right to start focusing on aging Baby Boomers, “many of whom are left with few options when their housing needs change.”

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The result, he adds, is that they remain in a home not necessary because they want to as it may no longer suit their lifestyle needs, but because there are not enough flexible alternatives available currently.

The situation, says Fox has implications that go far beyond seniors themselves for “when older Canadians can’t transition into the right housing, it reduces turnover across the housing market, limiting opportunities for younger families looking to purchase larger homes, adding more pressure to an already tough market.”

According to Fox, in the case of the older homeowner a proper strategy involves far more than “someone in a detached home looking for a smaller place. If that was the case, we have a lot of condos that are available right now and the price has dropped.

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“When seniors are forced to stay where they are more then they would like, it slows down turnover for everyone else, from move-up buyers to first timers.”

When it comes to housing affordability and availability issues, he says, they cannot just be solved alone by blanket policy changes or guidelines or new builds but instead by creating strategies on how best to service different age groups in the housing spectrum

As for the seniors who still own a home segment, Fox admits that “they may not be the largest group amongst those that need to be considered, but actually are quite an impactful one.”

While interest rates, the actual cost of a home and geo-political issues happening across the globe should be part of the conversation when it comes to determining why housing shortage issues exist and how best to solve them, he says “we need to take a more micro level view of specific segments within the housing market.

“In the case of seniors, I think there could be a knock-on effect of value elsewhere in the market.” Fox says an ideal scenario for Baby Boomers is to create housing and living spaces that “promote a community of people “that are in a similar stage in life.

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“If a senior is living in their detached home that they’ve lived in for 30 years, there’s not going to be a strong appeal to go and move to some random condo that’s not purpose built for their needs.”

There are, he says, multiple factors involved aside from the fact the logistical problems of an elderly couple living in large home and having to take care of it.

Still, he says, “nobody who has lived in their home 15, 20 even 30 years is going to be chomping at the bit to get out of there. There has to be a viable or attractive option to drive the move. Obviously those places do exist, but they are tough to get into.”

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