National Rent Report
Toronto and Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa, top the list for highest rents in Canada Overall rents in Canada up 2.1% monthly in September, report shows. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom home is down month over month in Toronto but still the highest in Canada, while a growing Ottawa suburb, Kanata, takes the top spot for highest rent for a two-bedroom at almost $3,000 a month. Average monthly rent for a one-bedroom home in Toronto in September is $2,304, down from $2,330 in August, and...
read moreStudent Housing In Canada Is Being Ignored, And It Might Be Why You Can’t Afford Rent
There are more than 400,000 international students in Canada, and no one is building housing for them. In the endless debate over Canada’s high house prices and rising rents, foreign buyers have become the most popular target for blame, and a popular target for policy action now, too. But the problem may have more to do with a somewhat different group of people landing on our shores, and the fact no one is building housing for them: international students. The number of students from abroad in...
read moreIn Edmonton Centre, affordable housing can be hard to find
Nearly 20 percent of renters spend half —or more —of their income on rent. Maryam Ali lives in Edmonton’s North Glenora neighbourhood with her three kids and her young nephew. Housing prices would put the mature, central community out of reach for the single mother if she had to pay market rent. But 2½ years ago, she moved into an affordable housing development built by a non-profit group on land owned by a church. Ali now pays rent that she can afford. “For us, it means more than...
read moreCanadian landlords increasingly concerned about effect of cannabis use on rental property
LANDLORDS ARE INCREASINGLY CONCERNED about the effect of cannabis use on a rental property, according to a poll released October 8. Real estate website Zoocasa surveyed Canadian property owners and renters about how they feel since the legalization of cannabis last October 17. While homeowners and renters seem to be getting more comfortable with cannabis use and home growing, landlords responding to the survey were much more concerned about the growing or smoking of cannabis in their...
read moreStudent housing in Canada: Soaring demand but supply lags ‘far behind,’ says report
Last year, there were 1.5 million full-time students enrolled in Canadian universities and colleges, but many are forced to live far from campus. Canada is 10 to 15 years behind the pace of the United States and United Kingdom when it comes to developing off-campus rental housing for the country’s growing student population, the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) revealed in a new report. “When you look (at the data)… three per cent of Canadian university students live in purpose-built...
read moreDeveloper offers Ottawa over $6m in lieu of affordable housing
Trinity Development Group has agreed to pay Ottawa more than $6 million toward future affordable housing, but it’s unlikely that any of those units will be in what will become the city’s tallest building. The project, which has been approved by the city council, will have 1,200 units in three towers, the tallest of which will be 65 storeys. The complex will be located where the two O-Train lines merge at Bayview station. When the zoning was being debated last year, Somerset Councillor...
read moreREIC Member Cheryl Gray, CPM® Named 2020 IREM President
The Real Estate Institute of Canada (REIC) celebrates the installation of Cheryl Ann Gray, CPM® as 2020 IREM President. Cheryl, who is the first Canadian and first non-U.S. individual to become IREM President, was inaugurated during the 2019 IREM Global Summit in San Francisco last week. “This is exciting news for Canadian property and asset managers as well as members of the Institute, as we see dedicated professionals in our community recognized on a global scale,” says REIC CEO Stephen...
read moreHere Are The Federal Ridings With The Worst Rental Housing Crises
The experts increasingly agree that we need to build more rentals to fix the housing affordability problem. Canada’s major cities are short of thousands of rental housing units and will see affordability worsen unless construction speeds up considerably, a new report is warning. The report comes as a new breakdown of data from the Canadian rental housing index shows the worst rental housing affordability crises are in some key battleground ridings in this election. The rental shortage is most...
read moreELECTION: How the parties’ housing promises stack up (VIDEO)
Housing has emerged as a hot-button topic in the federal election campaign, with party leaders unleashing a slew of headline-grabbing promises over the last few weeks. The so-called B-20 mortgage stress test, an incentive aimed at helping first-time buyers, and an update to the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan are among measures that have been introduced since the current Liberal government came into power in 2015. But affordability is still top of mind in the lead-up to the Oct. 21 vote, especially...
read moreSoaring rents and house prices in Canadian cities make housing a key election issue
Federal parties roll out their strategies to help urban Canadians keep housing costs in check. Jeff Gallant lived in his new home just 17 days before the For Sale sign went up. Soon after the single dad rented the house, it was sold and the new owners sent him notice of a major renovation that would force Gallant and his two young children to leave. A similar thing occurred at his previous place, and it’s happening to so many renters in Charlottetown that a new term has been born:...
read more