Buying a home is the dream of many in Canada. But depending on where you’re from, that may not become a reality for some time.
Housing prices have luckily been on the decline for the past year, meaning that the iron is fairly hot if you’re looking to strike. To make your decision to buy even easier, Zoocasa’s recent report reveals exactly where in the country it’s cheaper to purchase a home than rent. If you’ve got the funds and the dream to be a homeowner, then this could be your sign to pack up your bags and head to these places.
Buying A Home In Canada: Price-To-Rent Ratios
From groceries to gas to rent, saving monthly can get quite hard in Canada. In Zoocasa’s report Decoding Canada’s Price-to-Rent Ratios in 2026, they calculate how affordable it is to rent versus buying in popular cities across the country.
A few things are immediately clear on their chart. For one, Vancouver is in the second-to-last spot of the list with a staggering average of $2,664 for rent per month. Home prices aren’t much better as they’re reportedly averaged at $1,123,700 with a mortgage of $4,675. That’s a difference of $2,011.
Surrey is also near the bottom of the chart with a price-to-rent ratio of $1,957, with Victoria in a similar position with $1,413.
From Renting To Owning
For those living in cities like Red Deer and Saskatoon, renting provides little financial benefit. Zoocasa says that “savings for renters in these markets range from roughly $100 to $270 per month.” Fairly negligible, especially when you look at cities with far bigger price ratio gaps.
Renters can save anywhere between $400 to $450 per month when in cities such as Ottawa and Calgary. And when you look at areas of B.C., renting becomes considerably cheaper as your monthly savings can jump to over $1,000 each month.
So, Where Is It Better To Buy?
If you want to own a home (and save at the same time), you’re going to have to get out of B.C. and move a little farther inland.
As of now, the only two places that it is cheaper to pay a mortgage than rent is Regina and Winnipeg. Homeownership in these locations will get you immediate monthly savings. “In Regina, a monthly mortgage payment is $120 less than the average rent, while in Winnipeg, homeowners pay $92 less than their renting counterparts,” says Zoocasa.
Notably, Edmonton is an outlier to this trend. Zoocasa says that while it’s technically cheaper to rent there, the difference is extremely slim. At just $85 of monthly savings, “this marginal difference suggests that the leap from renting to owning [in Edmonton] is far more accessible than in the rest of the country.”
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