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.
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.