Over the next decade, Toronto seniors may not be freeing up the expected number of dwellings for younger people to move into and this will limit supply, says a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The report, entitled Seniors Housing Profile in the Toronto CMA, suggests that Toronto’s population of people aged 65 and older will grow over the next 10 years, and that a combination of higher employment levels, increased income and higher wealth, combined with social and community supports for seniors, “may further increase the home ownership rate for older residents as they remain in their homes for longer periods of time.”

The numbers, based on data from a Statistics Canada Survey of Financial Security and the National Household Survey, indicate that the share of Toronto homes owned by seniors who led households jumped 5 percentage points to 25 per cent over a 10-year period from 2005 to 2016.

In other words, seniors owned a greater share of homes in 2016 than they did in 2006.

According to the Statistics Canada figures, 249,000 of 1.2 million homeowners in Toronto were 65 and older , but in 2016, that jumped to 355,000 of 1.4 million homeowners in Toronto being 65 or older.

The report also found that seniors are much wealthier. Their median household net worth — assets less debt — rose from $505,700 to $875,000 while the net worth for those under 65 increased from $238,000 to $279,000.

More seniors are working now, according to the report, and among homeowners there has been a “strong increase in the share of retirees for whom pensions — public and private — are their primary source of income. These trends have translated into faster income growth for seniors.”

These are among the key findings that led Inna Breidburg, a senior economic analyst with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), to conclude that if trends continue, younger want-to-be homeowners may be shut out in the future.

“The trend of rising home ownership rate(s) among seniors may continue, which will translate into less supply being freed up for younger generations,” Breidburg said in a statement accompanying the report released Thursday.

Elizabeth Nykorowytsch Macnab, executive director of the Ontario Society of Senior Citizens' Organizations, which advocates on behalf of 500,000 seniors in the province, says there are challenges for seniors who are mulling the prospect of giving up their houses.

Many seniors don’t have as much as they would like to saved up for retirement, so moving into a rental unit for instance can be daunting because of the high rents in Toronto, she says.

“Rents in particular, people are telling me that as much as they’d like to move out of their home … rents have gone up substantially,” Macnab says.

They have a high net worth because they’re sitting on an asset — their homes — but seniors often want to protect this asset for their families and children so they’re not always keen to sell .

So these seniors are in effect “house rich, but cash poor” Macnab argues.

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Macnab says some seniors have cognitive impairments but their family members think it’s too disruptive to move these seniors from houses they are familiar in. And the seniors may not quite be ready for a long-term care facility.

“They don’t want to give up the familiar, so they (seniors) will reach out to the local health integrated networks for homecare, and home support rather than moving into a retirement community,” she said.