When Canadians talk about real estate, the conversation usually revolves around home prices. But prices alone do not explain how housing markets actually function on the ground.

One lesser discussed indicator is how many real estate professionals are active relative to population size. This measure, real estate professionals per 1,000 residents, offers insight into market intensity, competition, and transaction activity. All of these factors shape the experience of buyers, sellers, and agents alike.

Using provincial population estimates, benchmark home prices, and counts of licensed real estate professionals, Themapic analyzed how Canadian provinces compare when viewed through this lens.

Where real estate professionals are most concentrated

The results show a clear hierarchy.

Ontario ranks highest, with approximately 5.6 real estate professionals per 1,000 residents, followed by British Columbia at 4.5. Alberta sits in a middle tier at 3.3, while most Atlantic provinces and the Prairies cluster closer to 2.0 or below.

At the lower end of the spectrum, Saskatchewan has roughly 1.4 professionals per 1,000 residents, which is about one quarter of Ontario’s level.

This distribution broadly aligns with common perceptions of hot and slower housing markets.

In these markets, the number of professionals may not just reflect population size, but the capacity of the market to support real estate activity at scale.

Lower concentrations, by contrast, may signal fewer transactions per capita, longer sales cycles, or markets where relationships and local knowledge play a larger role than speed or volume.

Is professional density connected to home prices?

To explore whether price helps explain these patterns, benchmark home prices were examined alongside real estate professional density by province.

Chart comparing benchmark home prices to real estate professionals per 1,000 residents by province
Benchmark home price (Dec 2025) compared with real estate professionals per 1,000 residents.

At a high level, there appears to be a positive relationship.

  • Provinces with higher benchmark prices tend to have more real estate professionals per capita.
  • Lower priced provinces generally cluster at lower levels of professional density.

Ontario and British Columbia sit toward the upper end of both measures, while provinces with more moderate prices, such as Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, fall lower on each axis.

While this does not establish causation, the pattern suggests that higher priced housing markets tend to support a larger professional ecosystem. Greater transaction values can sustain more agents, more specialization, and more competition for listings.

That said, the relationship is not perfectly linear. Some provinces combine relatively high prices with lower professional density, which highlights the role of local market structure, regulation, and transaction velocity.

Newfoundland and Labrador offers an especially instructive example.

Despite having one of the lowest benchmark home prices among the provinces analyzed, the market has changed meaningfully over the past decade. Local real estate professionals point to several forces driving recent price increases.

  • Population growth
  • Job growth
  • Wage growth
  • Persistent supply constraints

“When I started in real estate 12 years ago, we had just over 400 agents in the entire province. Today, we are closer to the mid 800s. The number of agents has more than doubled.”

Even with that growth, Newfoundland and Labrador remains at approximately 1.8 real estate professionals per 1,000 residents, well below levels seen in Ontario and British Columbia.

This may reflect a market that, while tightening, remains more relationship driven and less transactional. Fewer professionals per capita can mean longer timelines, more hands on client engagement, and a different competitive dynamic than in markets where listings and buyers move at higher velocity.

What real estate professional density can and cannot tell us

Professional density is not a measure of market quality or opportunity on its own. However, it does offer useful signals about the following factors:

  • Competitive pressure among agents
  • Market capacity and transaction intensity

Higher density can indicate heightened competition. Lower density may reflect fewer transactions, but it often coincides with deeper client relationships and longer market participation.

For buyers and sellers, these structural differences help explain why similar price levels can still produce very different real estate experiences depending on location.

As Canadian housing markets continue to evolve, understanding market structure and not just pricing is increasingly important.

Real estate professional density adds another lens for interpreting market behavior. It helps explain how activity, competition, and capacity differ across provinces, and it reinforces the idea that price is only one part of a much larger system shaping how real estate is bought and sold in Canada.

Methodology

Population estimates are from Statistics Canada. Counts of real estate professionals and benchmark prices are aggregated at the provincial level. All figures are intended to illustrate broad market patterns rather than individual outcomes.

About Themapic

Themapic is a real estate platform that helps professionals create high quality, location based assets for listings, while improving how they connect and engage with home buyers and sellers. By combining maps, data, and visual context, Themapic helps buyers and sellers become better informed and helps agents communicate value more clearly.