Downsizing to a smaller home can improve your quality of life, reduce financial stress, and provide a cozy, lower-maintenance option compared to your large home. Here we look at the advantages of downsizing your home for empty-nesters, retirees, and the tiny-home-curious.
More Time for Doing Nothing (or Something You Love)
We love the idea of having fewer rooms to clean and more time to simply do nothing. If you find yourself spending more time cleaning and less time relaxing, a smaller home is easier to maintain, whether you ditch the front lawn and backyard for condo life or spend less time cleaning that mega square footage of floors, kitchen counters, bathrooms, etc. in a cute little bungalow.
Leveraging Home Equity
If you’ve built a respectable amount of home equity by either paying down a fair chunk of your mortgage or living blessedly mortgage-free, a move to a smaller, more affordable home is something worth considering. The less you owe on your home, the more cash goes into your pocket when you sell. You can use your profits to make a substantial down payment, securing a significantly lower mortgage, or opt to pay in cash while still having funds remaining for retirement, travel, or debt repayment. It all depends on the current value of your home. Even in a market where homeowners aren’t seeing the out-of-control pricing of years gone by, you’re likely sitting on a respectable asset that could mean close to a million or more, depending on your area and home type.
Learn more about home equity with these posts next:
- How to Pull Equity From Your Home
- New Homes Vs. Resale: Which One Generates Equity Faster?
- The Key to Building Home Equity Fast in the Toronto Real Estate Market
The Right Market Gets More for Less
Say you bought your home in 2000 when average prices were about $245,000 according to TREBB stats. You can sell your home for an average of just over a million in the GTA today (2026). If you have paid off your mortgage, that’s an impressive profit. In today’s market, you could find yourself with a gorgeous 2-bedroom condo for well below $700k if you opt to live in a quieter area just outside the GTA, like Durham, Halton, or Peel. That gives you more or less $300K to spare.
Even if you purchased your home more recently in 2016, for the average of about $730k, you could still earn a darn good down payment if you’ve made consistent payments over 10 years and your balance is hovering at around $470k. At current average home prices, that potentially leaves you with a down payment of about $530K ($1 million – $470K) depending on closing fees, etc. Imagine living with mortgage payments under $1,000 a month! Nice.
Warning: Remember to consider common element fees when buying a condo. These fees are more expensive in older buildings, but can still save money compared to repairs and replacements for a larger freehold home.
Lower Overall Expenses
Less square footage decreases the amount of energy to heat and air condition a home, while fewer “everything” from windows and shingles on the roof to garage doors and fixtures like toilets translate into savings over the time you own your smaller home maintenance-wise.
Cash in Your Bank Account
Spending less on your mortgage payments and managing a smaller home puts more money in your bank account. If the stars align and your home equity provides enough to purchase a condo for cash, you’re mortgage-free. You could be living on easy street (or at least on easier lane) with money to save or spend on the things you’ve sacrificed while living in that big old house of yours!
Get a better idea of potential money savings by reading our post: How Much Does it Cost to Own a Home in Toronto?
Loving Life
Less financial responsibility, increased cash flow and more free time all help reduce stress. Downsizing frees you of financial burdens and the worries of maintenance and repairs that can really set you back when you own a larger home. That means you can start loving life again.
The Right Strategy
We recommend three strategies to help our clients make the most of their downsizing goals:
#1 Move from downtown
If you’re okay with being further from the city, you can save more money and get more bang for your loonie in one of the convenient areas just outside the GTA.
Moving out of the downtown core works great when:
- Moving closer to the grandkids
- Changing amenity preferences such as more golf courses, marinas for boaters, etc.
- Seeking extreme affordability for empty nesters saving for retirement
- You work from home
#2 Condo living
Going ultra slim on your square footage offers even bigger profits when you sell your larger home.
Condo living is ideal for:
- Eco-conscious households wanting to reduce their carbon footprint
- Realizing ultra-reduced home-associated costs
#3 Small town living
Filled with charm and interesting amenities, small-town living in Ontario offers a slower pace of life closer to nature.
Smaller town living is a dream for:
- Retirees tired of city living
- Remote workers
Are you thinking of downsizing? Could you benefit from sound advice? Contact us at hello@christinecowern.com or 416-291-7372.
