The majority of our clients are both buying and selling real estate, often within the same city. They’re moving because of a change to their family, their work or their financial circumstances – and the home they’re in just doesn’t cut it anymore.

We went back and looked at the hundreds of deals we’ve done with clients and the city with the highest number of sellers actually moving to another part of Ontario or Canada is Toronto. It’s the biggest city in Canada and also where we’re based, so that’s not exactly shocking news, but it’s three times more common than other cities when we review our transactions. We do a lot of deals in Peel, York and Durham, but those clients are much more likely to be moving within the city they live in rather than moving away.

So, why is it more common for people to leave Toronto? Is it because they’re sick of hearing two-hour marathon chants of “Go Jays Go!” or because they want some distance from the annual disappointment of the Leafs being knocked out of the playoffs?

In our experience, these clients decide to buy outside of the city because it makes sense to them, because it fits with what they want in a home, in a neighbourhood, and in a lifestyle.

Let’s look into the reasons why people chose to move out of Toronto.

Home Prices

We know, this is an obvious one. As of October 2024, if you want to buy a home in Toronto, the average price is $1,166,000.

Compare that against the nine other largest cities in Ontario.

• Ottawa: $693,700
• Mississauga: $1,032,000
• Brampton: $972,000
• Hamilton: $798,500
• London: $645,000
• Markham: $1,273,000
• Vaughan: $1,189,000
• Kitchener: $742,000
• Windsor: $450,000

While Mississauga isn’t much cheaper – and Markham and Vaughan are actually a little bit more expensive than Toronto – there are lots of large cities in Ontario where your real estate dollar goes a lot further. We had a client who sold their one bedroom condo in Toronto this month and for not much more they have bought a high end townhouse in London.

Land Transfer Tax

This one isn’t always as readily apparent to buyers as the cost shows up late in the purchase process. In every part of Ontario, the purchaser of a home has to pay a land transfer tax to the province of Ontario. If you buy in Toronto, you also have to pay a land transfer tax of approximately the same amount to the City of Toronto.

If we use an apples-to-apples comparison, a $1M property in Toronto will cost $32,950 in land transfer taxes. The same property anywhere else in Ontario will result in land transfer taxes of half of that amount, which is a savings of $16,475.

As well, we should point out that the formula for land transfer tax is tiered so that lower-priced properties pay less tax. With Toronto’s average price of $1,166,000 and the double land transfer tax, buying the average property in the city will have you pay $39,950 in taxes.

Compare that to the other bigger cities in Ontario if you bought the average priced property and you’ll see the land transfer tax paid is significantly less.

• Ottawa: $693,700 average price, which means land transfer tax of $10,874
• Mississauga: $1,032,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $17,390
• Brampton: $972,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $16,090
• Hamilton: $798,500 average price, which means land transfer tax of $12,970
• London: $645,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $10,225
• Markham: $1,273,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $22,460
• Vaughan: $1,189,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $20,230
• Kitchener: $742,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $11,810
• Windsor: $450,000 average price, which means land transfer tax of $6,475

Even if you’re spending the same money as you would in Toronto, you will pay half the amount in land transfer taxes, so it definitely is a significant cost savings.

Family

Another reason clients choose to move out of Toronto is family. Whether it’s access to high-ranked schools, kids’ community programs, or proximity to aging parents, sometimes moving out of Toronto just makes life easier.

The influx of residents to Toronto means that schools, intramural sports, daycare, and other community resources and activities are oversubscribed and hard to get into easily or at an affordable cost. The lower land prices outside of Toronto can translate into more affordability for municipalities to build extra schools and daycares, and the lower density means less pressure on those resources that are in place.

Cost of Living

According to the 2023 Mercer Cost of Living survey, for the second year in a row, Toronto is the most expensive city in Canada in which to live.

Mercer ranked 227 global cities across five continents and Toronto sits 90th globally, having dropped one spot from last year’s ranking. Vancouver remains the second most expensive city in Canada and slid eight places to 116th in the ranking. Montreal fell 10 spots to 135th, Ottawa moved down five spots to 137th and Calgary, the last Canadian city on the list dropped four spots to 145th.

The good folks at WOWA have a cost of living calculator you can access here.

If we use that calculator and look at London, Ontario as an example, it makes even more sense why our client chose to move out of Toronto, with the cost of living in London being 14.7% lower than in Toronto. Housing is the biggest impact in terms of cost, coming in at 25% lower in London, but clothing, furniture and healthcare is also almost 15% lower in London than Toronto.

If you’ve ever marvelled at how easy it is to find free parking in smaller cities or towns, or paid a new fee to use a municipal service, you understand that living in a big city like Toronto comes with a lot of additional daily costs that add up over time.

Traffic

We can’t avoid what is quickly becoming the biggest annoyance in Toronto, as well as the most universally agreed upon statement, traffic is just terrible in the city now.

At the start of 2024, a new traffic index report from geolocation firm TomTom was released, using data compiled from over 600 million in-car navigation systems and smartphones. The company measured how long it takes, on average, to drive ten kilometres in various cities around the world and Toronto placed third out of 387 cities around the globe — and first in North America — for having the slowest traffic in 2023.

In Toronto’s city centre area, it took an average 29 minutes to drive 10 kilometres in 2023 — an increase of 50 seconds, nearly a minute, from last year. This makes Toronto traffic the slowest in North America, topped only by London and Dublin in first and second place, respectively.

Overall, the average Toronto driver loses around 255 hours to commuting every year. Rush hour traffic accounted for roughly 98 of these hours, when Torontonians were recorded driving at an average 18 km/h, the report found.

With the rise of remote work, it’s not surprising that people who can do the same job without being in Toronto are choosing to live somewhere with less traffic. It dramatically impacts your quality of life and makes everything harder to do. Whether it’s buying groceries, going out for dinner, visiting friends or family – it takes longer to get where you’re going and to get home afterwards.

If you’ve been considering making a move out of Toronto, than talk to us about your options. We have a network of trusted agents across Ontario and most parts of Canada and we’re of course happy to help you sell your home here in the city!