52% spike in U.S. residents viewing Canadian real estate listings after Trump elected

A Canadian real estate brokerage recorded a spike in U.S. residents searching Canadian properties following the election of Donald Trump.

Data from Royal LePage shows that U.S.-originated sessions on the brokerage’s website spiked 52 per cent in one day on Nov. 6, following the election of Donald Trump for a second time, Royal LePage said in a press release.

“This marks the highest number of U.S. users on the website year to date, and one of several spikes in web traffic from American visitors recorded since the race for the White House kicked off this summer,” Royal LePage said.

Traffic on the website during the week of the election, Nov. 4 to 10, increased 70 per cent year over year, the brokerage said.

The increase in U.S. residents searching for Canadian properties is part of a recent trend.

At the end of October, Royal LePage reported that visits from U.S. residents to the website had more than doubled in the week of June 16, surging 104 per cent week-over-week (67 per cent year-over-year).

There have been elevated levels of traffic from U.S. visitors ever since.

“Consistently ranking as one of the best countries in the world to live in, Canada continues to be a significant destination for international relocation; a fact unlikely to change in the years ahead,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer, Royal LePage.

The region with the highest number of visitors has consistently been the historically Republican state of South Carolina.

Three Canadian provinces received 70 per cent of all regional pageviews generated by U.S. visitors: Ontario (38 per cent), British Columbia (17 per cent) and Quebec (16 per cent).

While U.S. residents may consider a move to Canada, actually doing it may be difficult.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced a major drop in the number of new permanent residents Canada will accept in the coming years.

Canada is reducing the number of permanent residents from 500,000 to 395,000 in 2025, and to 380,000 in 2026, and set a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027.

Lead photo: Pavel Danilyuk