You’re 18, fresh out of high school, and you’ve got home-buying dreams.

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For young people, the fastest route to home ownership runs through the trades Back to video

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Unless you’ve invented the next big thing in your garage, you typically have three paths: a four-year degree, college, or learning a skilled trade.

If your goal is to buy a home sooner in Canada’s wallet-draining housing market — and you don’t mind an honest, hands-on job — give the trades a serious look.

Here’s why:

1. Canada is practically begging for tradespeople. Given the 3.87 million homes Ottawa hopes to build by 2031, the roughly 315,000 skilled tradespeople retiring in the next four years and Gen Z’s aversion to manual labour, many contractors will be forced to pay up for young talent.
2. Some trades, such as electricians and plumbers, are largely AI-proof. Robots may someday do mundane, repetitive tasks, but they’re a long way from wiring a house or fixing your pipes.
3. You’ll likely hit a six-figure income far faster than the average Canadian, especially if you work overtime.
4. Trades typically offer a clear-cut schedule — work your 35-45 hours, then kick back and enjoy your life.
5. You get to solve new puzzles with every job.
6. Work is project-based, giving you a sweet sense of achievement and valuable experience with each job completed.
7. If you work hard, you’re almost guaranteed a job within months of completing training.
8. You’ll never be stuck in a cubicle.
9. Down the line, there’s a chance to be your own boss in a very lucrative business.
10. Earning a solid, skilled-trade income means entering the housing market and building equity sooner than most.

Let’s dive into this last point with an illustration.

First, university educations bleed your wallet. Think over $75,000 for a four-year degree with residence, according to a study from Embark. Folks can save money with a college diploma, but they’ll earn 22 per cent less on average, according to Statistics Canada.

Compare that to trade school, which might total as little as half a year of classwork, cost a tiny fraction of an undergrad degree, qualify you for countless government grants and let you earn while you learn.

Moreover, skilled trades dodge the massive student debt loads that can haunt many grads for over a decade. That debt makes it harder to get a mortgage because it boosts your total debt service ratio, a metric lenders use to qualify you.

Consider an electrician apprenticeship in Ontario. Such a program can take four to five years to complete and, if you qualify for an apprentice job, you can earn about $20 to $35 hourly, depending on tenure and location.

Assuming you average $55,000 a year while apprenticing (it varies from first year to final year), have no debt and have a $20,000 down payment, you might qualify for up to a $250,000 purchase price.

In smaller markets, this may be doable for a one-bedroom, but $250K buys you parking space in our biggest cities. Your choices, in that case, are to go halfers with a co-borrower (e.g., friend, relative, partner or spouse), move out to the sticks or live at home and stash cash in a First Home Savings Account (FHSA) while you work.

Meanwhile, university students might invest up to $20,000 annually in tuition and residence while earning little, if any, income. As an apprentice, not only are your earnings climbing yearly, but you can also step onto the property ladder early, building equity sooner.

By the time you’re 23, you could potentially be a journeyman earning over $80,000 a year. In a case where you bought a $500,000 home with someone else while apprenticing, put five per cent down, and saw three per cent average annual price appreciation over four years, you and your co-owner would be sitting on a cool $113,080 in combined home equity.

Fast forward, and as a seasoned trades professional, you can pull in $100,000-plus annually. Devote five per cent of this to prepaying your mortgage yearly, and you could own your home outright in your thirties.

Meanwhile, today’s average university graduate will be coming out of school in 2028 or 2029 with debt and no home or savings. And they’ll almost certainly be buying into a more expensive housing market at the time. Not to mention, most will take well into their forties or fifties to pay that house off.

Getting approved

Before we wrap this up, there are a few things to know if you’re mortgage shopping as an apprentice.

Some lenders won’t entertain apprentice income, especially from a brand-new apprentice. Some will want a two-year history of apprentice wages, which is generally mandatory if the hours aren’t regular or guaranteed. And with some lenders, it helps to be working at the time the mortgage closes, as opposed to taking time off for trade school.

In terms of down payment, some lenders allow as little as five per cent down. Others will want 20 to 25 per cent down, especially if your credit and income aren’t ideal. An experienced mortgage broker knows which lenders are most flexible at the lowest rates.

In sum

University is spot-on for driven souls with an eye for the right degree and career — especially professionals. Yet, for the everyday Canadian, climbing into a skilled trade could be a faster ticket to a comfortable life and owning a home.

Most tradespeople have a favourable work-life balance and build respectable net worths — especially if they save smart and parlay early gains into their own business, a real estate portfolio or other investments.

Some sneer at trade work, deeming it less prestigious than an office job and a four-year degree. Forget that noise. You know what’s prestigious? Having a paid-off house, a few million bucks in your investment accounts and a successful career that fills a vital need in our country.

Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news. You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister.

The rates displayed below are updated by the end of each day and are sourced from the Canadian Mortgage Rate Survey produced by MortgageLogic.news. Postmedia and Imaginative. Online Inc., parent of MortgageLogic.news, are compensated by certain mortgage providers when you click on their links in the charts.