An increase in the demand the previous year pushed the rental market of Canada to its tightest level in 2 decades. Vacancy rates in apartments fell below 2%, and average rent for new tenants rose by 18%. Those were some of the main takeaways from the CMHC or Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s annual report on the condition of the Canadian rental market.
This is for purpose-built rental apartments. So, they do not include what happens in condos or apartments built out of occupied single-family homes. The national vacancy rate fell to 1.9 % for purpose-built rental apartments the previous year.
The rent for apartments
The great demand for apartments raised the price to get one. Also, the average rental price is dollars 1,258 per month. That was 5.6% more than the previous year’s level and about two times the annual average of the past thirty years. But rents here did not increase at the same rate for every unit.
Apartments, which had a change of tenants, saw average rent rise by 18.9%. The rents that remained unchanged saw rents rise by an average of 2.9%. So, CMHC said that it reflects that once a tenant vacates an apartment, landlords are free to raise rents according to current market levels.
That rent gap was wider in two of the largest cities in Canada. The cities of Vancouver and Toronto had an average rent for a unit that saw a tenant change rose 29% and 24%, respectively.
The observations were key takeaways from CMHC or Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. But rents did not rise at the same pace for each apartment or unit.
What the Executive Director of the Federation of Metro Tenants Association, Geordie Dent, said
The Federation of Metro Tenants Association executive director, Geordie Dent, has spent about a decade watching the rental market in Toronto. He said that the situation is at its worst. This goes hand-in-hand with a surge in “renovictions,” where landlords take advantage of higher market rents by easily evicting tenants and raising rents for someone new.
He told CBC News that he hears stories daily from people left in unsuitable housing because of desperation. He said they are afraid that if they get kicked out of their present apartment for a new one, the rent can be about $ 1,000 more.
As a result, the surge in demand pushed the rental market of Canada to its tightest level in 2 decades, and rent for new tenants went up by 18 percent. Now, renters across Canada are feeling the squeeze.
Across the country, in Vancouver, the vacancy rate fell to 0.9 percent. The average cost for a 2-bedroom hitting $ 2,002 per month. That is up by 5.7 percent from the previous year. But, it is up by 24 percent among apartments that saw a tenancy change.
