That shows that many Canadians remain wedded to their local environment despite the surging trend of interprovincial migration over the past two years, Alexander said – perhaps partly because of work considerations with offices and workplaces having reopened and fully-remote arrangements no longer possible in many cases.

“If you bought out of province and your employer’s asking you to come back to the office, it’s almost impossible to commute, even if it’s a couple of days a week,” he said. “All the affordability advantages you gained by moving to a less expensive area or community, you would lose if you had to fly in every week.”

Among the hurdles that Canadians said prevented them from entering the housing market, concerns over rising interest rates had climbed to 24%, an increase of 6% over last year, in a clear indication that the Bank of Canada’s rate hikes are looming large in many would-be buyers’ minds.

RE/MAX said in its report that while the record-low-rate environment of recent years had heralded an “excellent opportunity” for Canadians to enter the housing market, they had also added further intensity to a market that was already seeing high levels of activity.

As inflation surges and the Bank of Canada embarks upon some of its largest rate hikes for years, the report said that 57% of Canadians have now decided to wait to either buy or sell a home with speculation about a possible recession gathering pace.