Climate change is affecting how Canadians plan to buy homes, report says

A new BMO report said 39 per cent Canadians say climate-related factors such as wildfires, floods, heatwaves, and storms will affect where they live in the next five years.

As Canada is braces for another record wildfire season, the climate crisis is bleeding into another major challenge facing Canadians — housing.

A new BMO report released Monday found climate-related factors such as wildfires, floods, heatwaves, and storms will affect where 39 per cent of Canadians choose to live in the next five years. The percentage is higher among younger Canadians.

It jumps to 49 per cent for millennials (those born between 1981 to 1996) and 54 per cent for gen Z Canadians (those born between 1997 to 2012), the report said.

Alex Cool-Fergus, national policy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, said the data is not surprising considering that recent events have brought the climate crisis home for many Canadians.

“The impact of, for example, a flood in your basement can cost you dozens of thousands of dollars, for one event. I think it’s normal and I think it’s … relatively encouraging to know that people are aware of the risks,” she said.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, 10 per cent of all households in Canada are “highly exposed” to flood risk but lack access to flood insurance. The cost of extreme weather events on residences has skyrocketed since 2008.

A recent report by the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation said between 1983 and 2008, insured losses in Canada averaged $456 million a year. Since 2008, losses have surged and now regularly exceed $2 billion per year, mostly due to water-related damage. In 2023, severe weather damage in Canada exceeded $3 billion for the second year in a row.

The Intact report said catastrophic flooding resulted in an average 8.2 per cent reduction in the final sale price of houses, 44.3 per cent reduction in the number of houses listed for sale, and 19.8 per cent more days on market to sell a house. The Okanagan and Shuswap, B.C., area wildfires and Nova Scotia flooding were two major weather events that contributed significantly to the damage last year.