Following a year like no other, Canada’s housing market is poised to have a record-setting 2021, with price momentum and demand forecast to continue, according to a new report from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

RBC senior economist Robert Hogue released a report last week, looking at the current state of the country’s housing market, which Hogue believes is on pace to set more records amid the current unprecedented public health and economic challenges.

Hogue began the report by saying: “In the end, the rollercoaster that was 2020 left Canada’s housing market more or less where it started the year: full of bidding wars, escalating prices and exasperated buyers unable to find a home they can afford.”

The economist says that the pandemic changed some buying behaviours by driving many buyers to the suburbs and beyond while grounding immigration to a halt, triggering a downturn in big cities’ rental markets, and causing households to build up their savings.

But one thing the pandemic didn’t do is “dial down the market’s heat,” which RBC expects will largely continue in 2021, with prices slated to reach “new heights” in the year ahead.