Seller guide
Senior Downsizing With Confidence
Kirby Chan, Broker, explains how seniors can plan a downsizing move by focusing on lifestyle needs, financial planning and practical steps.
Key takeaways
- Downsizing is a major life transition that goes well beyond the move itself
- Start with lifestyle needs and financial planning
- Practical steps make the transition less overwhelming
About this video
Downsizing marks a major life transition, so it deserves thoughtful planning.
Kirby Chan, Broker, of Kirby Chan & Co. Real Estate Team explains how seniors can approach it with clarity by focusing on lifestyle needs, financial planning and the practical steps that make the change smoother.
What sets the pace of a later life move
The real estate part of downsizing is the straightforward part. What decides the timeline is choosing a destination, sorting decades of contents and getting everyone who is involved to agree.
Plan on six to twelve months from the first serious conversation to being settled. Only a small part of that is fixed: a status certificate must arrive within 10 days and closing usually falls thirty to ninety days after the sale is firm. Everything before that expands to fill the time you give it and the sorting is almost always the step that sets the length.
Two things to check before you sell
Markham’s seniors property tax programmes. The City runs a Low-Income Seniors Property Tax Assistance Program and a Seniors and Low-Income Tax Deferral Program for owners 65 or older who meet the conditions, including receiving the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement. If you have been deferring tax, that amount comes due when the property is transferred, so it belongs in what you expect to net from the sale.
The principal residence exemption. If the home was your principal residence for every year you owned it, the Canada Revenue Agency’s exemption can eliminate the capital gain. You still have to report the sale even when the whole gain is exempt. Confirm your own position with an accountant.
Our downsizing guide for Markham covers costs, destinations and sequencing in full and the senior downsizing checklist sets out the steps in order.
Not advice. This video and these notes are general information only. Nothing here is legal, tax, mortgage or investment advice.
Market data. Any figures mentioned reflect the period stated at the time of recording and may be out of date. Always confirm current figures before acting.
