Canada's rental crisis is getting worse, according to a new report that found the average asking price for rent in September was $2,149 — up by more than 11 per cent compared to a year ago.
That's according a data analysis of tens of thousands of new rental listings across the country from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and research firm Urbanation.
And according to the September report, average rents aren't just headed up — they're increasing at their fastest pace this year.
While the general national trend is pricier rents, the situation is playing out differently in individual markets.
Toronto remains one of the most expensive in the country, with the average cost of a one-bedroom property now at $2,614 a month. But the pace of rent hikes in the Ontario city has slowed considerably in recent months, and was down by 0.2 per cent from August's level. Compared to one year ago, Toronto rents are up by 4.9 per cent.
I live and am active in co-op housing in my area.
It's the only proven sustainable solution to affordable housing.
Any city in Canada, the least expensive housing is co-op housing.
There's virtually no discussion of co-ops in the media.How did you get into it in the first place? Was it advertised somewhere?
I have heard the term a few times but don't know much else.
Easiest way is to look online for housing co-ops in your area. Unfortunately, there's very few spots that come available. The last time a spot in mine opened up was when a member died. That was 2 years ago.
Yup they're everywhere and fucking impossible to get into. I remember there was one on south danforth in Toronto that was decades to get in or you had to "know someone".
No wonder.
I've heard of a place in London that has apartments for less than $700
I was on half a dozen wait lists before I finally left Vancouver :/
Checkout this post from last week: https://lemmy.ca/post/6518929
Land trusts in BC are often used to build co-ops
I want to know more
What co-ops are (time stamp at most relevant point, but it's a short vid anyway):
old link removed
correction: the time stamp was missing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWfbLPmOeTs&t=48sMore in-depth discussion of how co-ops could help Canada recover from the housing crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKudSeqHSJk
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I read an article that said that policies should look at either reducing demand or increasing supply. Almost all policies introduced by our federal government have instead increased demand.
Reducing demand. For housing. Excuse me sir, are you sure I can’t interest you in this lovely cardboard box? It costs slightly less than the 1dr you’re looking at 🫠
Reducing demand. For housing
It's as simple as not introducing a million immigrants per year when we are in the middle.of a housing crisis. A temporary reduction makes a lot of sense and can be done with the stroke of a pen.
A temporary reduction makes a lot of sense and can be done with the stroke of a pen.
The same pen can be used by the feds to start buying and renting affordable housing … seeing as the provinces don't seem to be doing anything except taking Ottawa's money.
Buying up existing stock and renting it for below market will neither affect supply nor demand. Housing prices are what they are because we do not have enough housing for our population. We need to build more (and denser) housing.
Building more, and building social housing in particular, is absolutely necessary. At the same time, building takes a long time to meet demand, while reducing demand can be instantaneous.
I live and am active in co-op housing in my area.
It's the only proven sustainable solution to affordable housing.
Any city in Canada, the least expensive housing is co-op housing.
There's virtually no discussion of co-ops in the media.
Let's get another million immigrants and build nothing to house them, that will help
Getting a roommate especially does not help if you own your home and you are on ODSP. They claw back 50% of your rental income. It's monstrous. You'd think you could first apply it directly to housing expenses, but no; not only is it applied to your income, but you don't get the benefit of the first thousand dollars being exempt from clawbacks like with all other income. It's like they have specifically designed the system to make it impossible for someone on ODSP to keep their home. And ultimately it costs more to have someone move out of a place they own and into a rental. It's so regressive and backwards. It's a reflection of the institutional and cultural hatred of the poor we seem to be so fucking proud of.
Only way out for me I see in the long term is to live with like tons of roommates and practice my ultra-dense room arrangement skills.
I think the core problem is that any move the government makes to reduce housing costs will piss off everyone whose primary investment is their house.
Correct solution if not for that would be for government to directly build a fuckton of housing.
Incorrect solution would be to reduce immigration. Immigration is good for other reasons. Cutting it off would weaken the country.
The immigrants still need somewhere to live. Canada should have increased its housing before bringing in more people, rather than deal with it afterwards. A breif pause on immigration to allow housing to catch up would be reasonable at this point. A similar statement could be made about healthcare.
Immigration helps with healthcare though. We get working, tax paying adults, and skip the expensive child phase.
Messing with immigration numbers would throw off other systems too. Makes way more sense to just directly fix the problem of not enough housing. It's not like cutting immigration would do anything to reverse the problem anyway. Housing looks like it's just an excuse to blame immigrants, because somehow the solution always seems to be blaming immigrants.
Huh… I wonder what's driving up these prices?
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What's the BoC's role in this? They must know that increasing rates will lead to landlords passing on the increase to the tenants.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Canada's rental crisis is getting worse, according to a new report that found the average asking price for rent in September was $2,149 — up by more than 11 per cent compared to a year ago.
That's according a data analysis of tens of thousands of new rental listings across the country from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and research firm Urbanation.
One reason for the deceleration in Toronto is that more people are choosing to live with a roommate to cut costs, said Rentals.ca communications director Giacomo Ladas.
"I'm looking at basement suites that are in not the most desirable neighbourhoods of Calgary … safety concerns, that kind of stuff, that I'm looking at [and thinking] 'oh man, is this what I'm going to have to be basically downgrading to?'"
The Alberta economy is faring better than the rest of Canada, which is drawing tens of thousands of people to the province every month for work and its comparative affordability.
The lack of supply is a major factor elsewhere, too, including in Nova Scotia, where the average asking price for a new apartment hit $2,088 last month, up 15 per cent in the past year.
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