Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

Canada has $2.42 trillion of residential real estate debt

May 23, 2025 · View original


Here’s an interesting table via the Globe and Mail:

As of January of this year, residential real estate loans in Canada totalled approximately $2.07 trillion. On top of this there’s another $350 billion in home equity lines of credit. This brings total loans secured by residential real estate in this country to about $2.42 trillion.

What this chart really shows, though, is how concentrated the mortgage market is. The “big six” banks make up about 74% of the market. If you include Desjardins, the total increases to 80%. That’s pretty much the market.

Cover photo by Tiago Rodrigues on Unsplash