Some provinces are seeing fewer remote workers moving from Toronto and Vancouver, but other buyer types are still moving to less pricey areas
It was one of the most significant housing and mortgage market trends of the COVID-19 pandemic: a deluge of workers leaving pricey urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver, keeping their job in the city but purchasing in another province and working from there.
Back then, it seemed office shutdowns and work-from-home measures were here to stay, meaning Canadians could hold onto their big-city job but move to a much more affordable location – and potentially, get more value for their dollar.
But major employers, including the Ontario civil service and Canada’s banking giants, have been ramping up return-to-office measures this year, raising questions about whether that so-called urban exodus will soon be a thing of the past.
New Brunswick was one of the provinces that saw an uptick in arrivals from other parts of Canada at the height of the pandemic. Now, more regular levels of migration have returned in line with pre-COVID movement, with newcomers from abroad the biggest contributor to population growth.
That’s not to say it’s become a less appealing place to live – just a more complicated move for people who rely on a job elsewhere.
“It’s definitely a very different ball game than it was in 2021,” Sarah Albert (pictured top), a Moncton-based mortgage broker with Premiere Mortgage, told Canadian Mortgage Professional.
Housing minister Gregor Robertson said average home prices must fall as the government works to expand non-market housing. Economists like CIBC’s Benjamin Tal argue policy missteps and record immigration worsened affordability pressures.https://t.co/ODWpx4GZH1
— Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine (@CMPmagazine) October 22, 2025
“But we still do have people coming here. What I’m finding is the majority of people that are transferring here have been remote workers since before COVID or are retired. I’m seeing mostly people that are coming home.”
Toronto market slowdown causing ripple effect
Employers’ determination to bring back a more regular office-working week might be forcing some Ontarians to shelve their plans to purchase outside the province, while the deep freeze that’s set over the Toronto housing market is also presenting its own hurdles.
“The other challenge we’re running into is that the market in Ontario has slowed down to such a pace that we have clients that want to move here but haven’t been able to sell properties,” Albert said.
“They’re sitting on the market or haven’t been able to get as much out of them as they were expecting. So the cashflow for coming to New Brunswick from other provinces has been a challenge.”
Ontario increasingly unappealing for younger buyers
Younger people who live in Ontario but aren’t tied to their job, though, continue to see New Brunswick as an appealing option.
In Toronto, the average price of a standard home in August slipped compared with the previous month – but at $969,000, those property types remain well out of reach for most younger buyers.
In Fredericton, the average price sits well lower, at $342,000. That means while a household would require an income of $200,160 to afford an average home in Toronto, in Fredericton buyers could purchase on a salary of $80,220, according to Ratehub.ca.
Unsurprisingly, that rampant unaffordability is seeing plenty of younger Ontarians leave the province. As a whole, Ontario saw a net loss of 104,426 people to the rest of Canada between 2020 and 2024, the Fraser Institute highlighted.
And Albert said while the number of remote workers moving to New Brunswick is slowing, plenty of younger Canadians are choosing to move to the province and find a job there instead.
“I’m seeing more and more young people come here, renting and setting up shop here,” she said. “They’re not coming here right from Ontario and buying – they’re just switching provinces.”
The slowdown in people selling their properties in other cities and moving to New Brunswick, meanwhile, has also been good news for hopeful buyers already located in the province who may have been frozen out of the property market in recent years.
“I’m seeing people buy and have accepted offers that I’ve had preapproved for two years,” Albert said. “They’re buying now because it was too competitive for them [before]. So the market is definitely balancing here right now.”
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