The renovate or move question has a clear winner in Canada right now: staying
put. Renovation spending hit about $103 billion in the latest industry
figures — more than the $86 billion Canadians spent on building new homes.
For the majority of residential construction dollars in this country, the job
site is now somebody’s existing house. That’s a quiet but significant shift,
and it says a lot about where homeowners and local trades are headed in 2026.
Why staying put is winning
Three forces are stacking up on the “renovate” side of the ledger:
- The math of moving got ugly. Between land-transfer taxes, realtor fees,
moving costs, and giving up a lower mortgage rate, changing houses can burn
tens of thousands of dollars before you’ve improved anything. A $60,000
kitchen suddenly looks like the cheaper upgrade. - The housing stock is aging. Much of Canada’s housing was built decades
ago. Roofs, windows, wiring, and insulation are coming due at the same time
— industry analysts
point to aging homes and energy retrofits, not pandemic-style splurges, as
the engine of the next renovation cycle. - Costs have stopped sprinting. Renovation prices aren’t falling, but
after years of double-digit jumps, 2026 increases have slowed to a crawl,
with some regions and project types flat. Homeowners who shelved plans in
2023–2024 are coming off the sidelines.
What it means for homeowners
If you’re weighing a renovation this year, the climate is better than it has
been in a while — but skilled labour is still the bottleneck. Licensed trades
like electricians and plumbers commonly bill $100–$150 per hour, and good
crews book out weeks ahead. Two practical takeaways:
- Book early, especially mid-summer. Quebec’s construction holiday
(July 19 – August 1 this year) pulls thousands of workers off job sites,
and vacation season thins crews everywhere else too. - Get multiple quotes. With labour this expensive, the spread between
two quotes for the same job can be thousands of dollars. Treat quote
shopping as part of the project, not a formality — the same discipline we
recommend in our pest control cost guide
applies double to renovations.
What it means for local pros
For contractors and skilled trades, the renovation-first era is good news
with a catch. The work is shifting from big greenfield builds to thousands
of smaller residential jobs — which rewards pros who are easy to find, quick
to quote, and strong on reviews. Homeowners doing “necessity renovations”
shop around more than pandemic-era splurgers did. Being visible where they
search is the whole game, which is exactly why we
launched the MastersGuild app
— to put vetted local pros in front of homeowners at the moment they’re
ready to hire.
The bottom line
Canadians aren’t giving up on better homes — they’re just building them out
of the ones they already own. If your list of “someday” projects is growing,
this is a friendlier year to start than the last few were: prices have
steadied, and the pros are out there.
Planning a renovation, repair, or upgrade? Compare quotes from vetted local
pros in minutes —
Get quotes on MastersGuild