Magda and Alexander King outside their home on June 29, 2021 in Collingwood, Ont.Tannis Toohey/The Globe and Mail
In a tough housing market, a mid-sized engineering firm in Canada stands out for trying to ensure its staff have a leg up on the property ladder.
C.F. Crozier & Associates Inc. is in its fourth year of offering employees as much as $20,000 for a down payment on their first home. It has so far provided the benefit to 36 staff members, with the requirement that they remain with the firm for at least three years after receiving the money.
“The loyalty and goodwill that we build with our employees goes a long way,” said Crozier president Nick Mocan, who helped create the program after hearing that his employees were struggling to find affordable housing in the Collingwood, Ont., area, where the firm is headquartered. “Many are not looking to move on the third anniversary of the benefit,” he said.
It is common for employees to receive bonuses or perks such as gym memberships as part of their total compensation package. But Crozier’s benefit is unusual in that it provides money specifically for down payments and is available to all employees, including receptionists.
The money is not tied to job performance, although employees must be in good standing. They simply have to write a letter to Mr. Mocan explaining why they need the help.
When 28-year-old Nicholas Lefebvre made the request, he recalled Crozier executives saying: “We’re not making this hard. We don’t need you to write a 10,000-word essay on why you think you should be entitled to this money. It’s not a bursary. It’s there for you.”
Mr. Lefebvre, a technologist, received $15,000 and said the lump sum helped him and his partner buy a three-bedroom townhome in Midland, Ont., for $445,000 in the summer of 2022. Until they received the help, the couple had made about 20 offers on properties and were outbid on every one. The funding also allowed them to move quickly and lock in a relatively low mortgage rate in the early stages of the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest-rate hiking campaign.
It probably would have taken a lot longer to find a home if they had not received the funding from Crozier, Mr. Lefebvre said. “The market was, you know, absolutely sprinting away.”
For Magda King, who started as Crozier’s receptionist in 2019, the money helped her and her husband buy a house in Collingwood. The couple had been living with Ms. King’s in-laws in a three-bedroom house before they bought their place. She remembers being outbid on 10 houses and said the Crozier funding helped them compete.
Now 32, Ms. King has since been promoted to construction co-ordinator and has had a baby. Without Crozier’s help, she said, she would still be living with her husband’s parents. “There’s definitely no way we would have a baby right now if we were still living with the in-laws,” she said.
Although the federal government is promoting the construction of rental buildings, many Canadians still want to own their homes.
Haley Birrell and Brendan Krahn both work at Crozier. Ms. Birrell, 28, is a project engineer, and 31-year-old Mr. Krahn is an engineer in training. They met at Crozier and live together in a house in Wasaga Beach, where they pay about $2,000 a month in rent.
They have always wanted to buy a house, even before they became a couple.
“I want to be able to own my home,” Ms. Birrell said. “Housing security is a big portion of it.”
Mr. Krahn said he has moved four times in the five years he has worked at Crozier.
They both applied for the Crozier benefit and will each receive $20,000. They are buying a preconstruction home in Collingwood, which is scheduled to be completed next year. Mr. Krahn said the Crozier funds helped them speed up their timeline by three to five years.
Since Crozier launched the program in February, 2021, Mr. Mocan said, other companies have asked about setting up a similar benefit. But so far, he’s not aware of any that have.
Compensation experts say they have heard of natural-resources firms using down payment help to entice workers to move to remote locations such as Fort McMurray, Alta., or providing housing for employees relocating within the company.
But Crozier’s benefit is unusual. Peter Landers, a senior partner with Global Governance Advisors, said he has never come across such a perk in his 17 years helping companies design their pay packages. “That’s pretty unique,” he said.
As for the requirement that an employee receiving the benefit must remain with the company for at least three more years, that’s certainly not an onerous term, Mr. Lefebvre said. “I love working here.”
Crozier deposits the funds directly into an employee’s registered retirement savings plan, where it sits for 90 days before the employee can withdraw the funds without tax penalties under Ottawa’s program for first-time homebuyers.
Isabelle Forsyth, a 29-year-old project engineer, and her partner had saved $50,000 for a down payment before they knew they would get help from Crozier. Their house cost $428,500 in Greenwich, N.S., where Ms. Forsyth is working remotely. She said about a third of it had to be fully renovated.
“It allowed us to move up our timetable to make the necessary changes to make it feel like home,” she said.