One in three Ontario homes resold at loss

Madison Stewart • 08/06/2026 • 3 min read

Discover why one in three Ontario homes are being resold at a loss, with data from Teranet showing a market correction for properties bought in 2022.

One in three Ontario homes resold at loss - ontario homes loss — One in three Ontario homes resold at loss

More Ontario homeowners are selling properties at a loss as housing market corrections continue to ripple through the province, according to new data from Teranet Inc., the private company that manages all property title registrations in Ontario.

The trend was most pronounced among properties bought in 2022, when home prices reached record levels. Teranet found that 36.6 per cent of properties purchased that year and resold in 2025 were sold at a loss, reflecting both price corrections and the higher cost of carrying a mortgage today.

Jasaman Singh of Century 21 Vital Realty in Brampton faces these conditions with clients every day. He recently saw a seller client lose $950,000 on a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Northwest Brampton. The client bought the home for $2.2 million in February 2022 and sold it last week for $1.25 million – a loss of 43 per cent.

“The bigger the house, the bigger the problem,” Singh said.

He says scenarios like this are becoming increasingly common.

Toronto-area losses spread beyond the core

According to Teranet, Toronto and most surrounding regions saw over 20 per cent of properties purchased in 2022 and 2023 and later sold registered a loss. Dufferin County and Peel had the highest rates of loss, while many of the “cottage country” regions north of the GTA experienced rates of loss above 25 per cent.

Singh said areas outside of the Toronto downtown core, which saw the biggest price growth during the pandemic years, are being hit the hardest. He suspects the worst is yet to come.

“It has to get worse before it gets stable, and then better.”

Power of sale activity climbs sharply

Ontario is also seeing a sharp rise in power of sale activity, another sign that higher borrowing costs are continuing to strain some homeowners. The number of power of sale transfers climbed to 2,979 in 2025, up from 2,123 a year earlier and fewer than 600 in 2022.

While power of sale transactions still account for a relatively small share of overall housing activity, the steady increase suggests a growing number of households are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments and other living expenses. Teranet said the trend may reflect the challenges facing homeowners renewing mortgages at significantly higher interest rates or carrying variable-rate debt.

Jonathan Alphonso, a Toronto-based mortgage broker, real estate agent and private lender focused on distressed borrowers, said people are only selling in this market if they absolutely have to. He said he’s seeing an increasing number of “dire situations,” and predicts the trend will continue.

“People who are calling me now and want to sell, they’re not in a good place. Divorce (or) they have other debts they need to get rid of. Some of them have no money whatsoever, not even living expenses, and they are already leveraged to the maximum,” he said.

First-time buyers step in as investors step back

Tracy Valko sees a lot of mortgage applications as founder and brokerage owner of Valko Financial Ltd. She was surprised to see Teranet report that the average first-time homebuyer age had climbed to 40.

From her point of view, people are still getting into the market in their mid-30s, often with co-signing or down payment help from their parents. She said the softening in prices has opened the door wide for people who had been on the sidelines.

“I feel like the Ontario housing market is increasingly becoming a first-time homebuyer market. It’s obviously not an investor market anymore,” she said. “It’s allowing people to take advantage of those windows, where there’s not as much competition, and they’re able to have more negotiating power.”