It’s long been known that many Millennials are struggling to afford homes in Canada’s priciest provinces.

Now, new data from the nation’s statistical agency shows just what share of BC and Ontario homeowners are made up of the cohort.

Spoiler alert : it’s a small group, proportionally.

Only about 14 percent of homeowners in BC and Ontario are Millennials, which Statistics Canada defines as anyone born between the years of 1980 and 1999, or from age 20 to 39.

That range falls below the median for all residential properties owners in both provinces, which are home to the most expensive major markets in Canada.

For BC, the median age of a homeowner is 56, compared to 54 in Ontario.

Millennial homeownership has become a major political issue ahead of the fall federal election.

The Justin Trudeau-led Liberals have announced a number of measures geared towards giving first-time homebuyers a leg up.

One was allowing first-time homebuyers to withdraw from their RRSPs up to $35,000 for a downpayment, raising the previous cap by $10,000.

Another is a shared-equity mortgage scheme called the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive.

This program, set to kick off in September, will see the government provide up to 10 percent for a downpayment on a home in exchange for an equivalent equity stake in the property.

Response to the incentive has been tepid due to the fine print. The maximum mortgage is limited to four times a household’s annual income, which itself is capped at $120,000.

Critics suggest that won’t go very far in markets like Toronto and Vancouver. The benchmark price of a Toronto home, including condo apartments and houses, was $794,800. In Vancouver, it was $1,006,400.

Both of those figures exceed the maximum amount a homebuyer taking part in the incentive could purchase.

Not only that, but one mortgage expert recently noted that a borrower could qualify for a larger mortgage without taking part in the program.

“[T]hose not participating in the program can actually qualify for a mortgage that is 4.5–4.7 times their income,” said James Laird, co-founder of mortgage-rate-comparison website Ratehub.ca.

Only 14% of Homeowners are Millennials in BC & Ontario. Can New Government Initiatives Help? by Josh Sherman | Livabl