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***Shared property aspirations more important than looks for Canadian daters***

VANCOUVER, July 24, 2019 /CNW/ - The majority of Canadian millennials (61%) feel anxious about buying a property – so much so that shared financial (39%) or property (33%) goals were more important than looks when considering a potential future partner for daters. Prioritizing shared property goals over other considerations has a downside for Canadian millennials.  They are far more likely to say they had stayed in a bad relationship due to property (16%) than Canadians on average (6%).

This is according to Beyond the Bricks, an HSBC sponsored annual global survey of close to 12,000 adults in 10 countries, including 1,077 adults in Canada, exploring attitudes to home ownership. 

Once they've found their perfect partner, getting on the property ladder is both exciting and stressful for Canadian millennials:

• The majority of Canadian millennials (62.8%) said financial considerations drove their last house move
• The top two reasons were getting more house for their money (25.5%), or a lower cost of living (23.4%).
• The biggest source of tension was accepting money from parents for the purchase (14%).

So it's not surprising that over half of all millennials feel overwhelmed about buying a property compared to one in five baby boomers. The applications, land surveys, fees and contracts associated with the mortgage process itself were the biggest source of tension for all age groups in Canada (25%) although this was most pronounced for millennials (33%).

Barry Gollom, Senior Vice President of Retail Banking and Wealth Management Products and Propositions, HSBC Bank Canada, said:  "The anxiety millennials (and others) feel is justified.  Close to 70% of Canadians own their home but less than 30% do so without a mortgage¹.  It's good to be a little nervous about the biggest purchase you'll likely ever make. But you shouldn't be overwhelmed.  And we do our part to make our customers sleep a little easier in their new homes."

The anxiety doesn't end when the deal closes 

In order to afford their new home, Canadians were more likely than their global peers to cut back on day to day spending (30%), major expenditures like car purchases and luxury items (29%) and/or curtail their social life (28%). Globally, respondents similarly cut back on major expenditures and socializing but were far more likely to delay having a child (35% vs. 6% locally) and far less likely to cut back on day to day spending (11%) than Canadians. 

Property obsessed or just curious?

Given their level of anxiety, it's not overly surprising to hear that millennials keep a close eye on the value of their homes.  One quarter of Canadian millennials admitted to checking the value of their property at least once per month – much higher than Canadians overall.  Only 8% of Candians admit to checking the value of their property at least monthly and most (49%) say they check the value annually.

But that doesn't mean they aren't paying attention.  On average, Canadians spend 2.08 hours a week on property related activities (viewing, reading about and searching for property).  That's more time than they spend reading to their children (0.81 hours/week) or on the phone with their parents (0.99 hours/week) but less time than their global peers.  Canadians rank second last and clock significantly less than the 6.6 hours spent on these activities by those in the United Arab Emirates or the 4.95 hours put in by those in the US. 

Gollom added: "Canadians should be looking at their home as a place to live and build memories.  On average Canadian respondents had been living in their current home for approximately 13 years.  Historically, it's very unusual for the value of a home to decline over the span of a decade so there's no good reason to be checking the value frequently.² It just creates unwarranted anxiety."

Notes to editors:

SOURCE HSBC Bank Canada