Average rent in Canada tops $2,000 per month | About That 

And we wonder why so many people are living in tents. It's getting harder and harder for a person working full time on minimum wage can afford their own place

My son pays half of his income on rent, his friend just sign a contract for $2700 a month on rent, she is going to pay half of her income one rent, I feel sorry for young generation they can never be able to buy a house. There’s so many empty buildings in the city, they should turn those into affordable apartments so people would have a chance to live a decent life, Canada put billions of dollars helping other countries ( I understand we have to help other countries in need) but shouldn’t we help our own people first or our governments should do something about and not just talk about it, action are better then just words

Rent is getting worse, i swear i have to work overtime and i still struggle paying basic bills

When housing is treated like a commodity with massive investment from corporations to buy up property to force scarcity the 'market' bloats and bloats. Landlords have been raising rent up to the limit (if there is one), and pushing the limit over and over and over and with 0.5% Vacancy ... they can charge more for an apartment than the mortgage for the entire home. Friends pay 135% more than our mortgage, to rent a 900sq/ft house. So they pay so much they can't afford to save for their own place. If they owned it, even with all the costs they'd be paying less than us. The value of our house has increased by 200% in one decade.

My first apt at 18 in the city of Vancouver was a 2 bdrm for $700. I'm now 43 and stuck in the Vancouver rent-trap. At one point in my late 30's I had about $60K saved. That wasn't enough a down payment on anything, and not even looked at by the banks since I'm single self-employed person with no co-signer. As much as I wanted to continue growing that amount, it started to get used. And used some more. I've now lost all my savings, and now in debt. I lived abroad for the greater part of my 20's-30's and used to be very proud to call Canada home, but a HOME is relative to what? We need to be able to grow, not dwindle. I'm doing my best to get out of debt, GRATEFUL to be grandfathered into my current apartment with rent-protection, but this building could be sold for development anytime. And that constant state of unknowing has its own terrible affects.

The first time when I came to Richmond, BC, in 2015 Jan, my rent was $900 (850sqft). Current rent is starting from $1800..Insane.

Average of $2000 a month for rent vs. $375 people on disability receive for rent each month. Way to go Canada. Leaving the most needy facing life on the streets.

Since I couldn’t afford to buy a house anyways it didn’t bother me so much of crazy housing prices but now rent is also going crazy and it concerns me. I am looking for a small studio apartment outside of downtown and I cannot find anything under $2,000. I am considering buying a tent next month.

The EXACT same thing is happening in the US, the UK and Australia. It looks like the middle class is being wiped out and 2 extreme classes of society are being put into place like a dystopian film. Scary

"You shouldn't be paying more that one third of your income on rent..." HA!

If you pay $2000 for rent, your income should be $6600, $1600/wk, $40/hr. I'm on a neighborhood app in Toronto, and every week, people are complaining about things being stolen. They say these people should get a job because so many are available. I ask how many are paying $35/hr. No response.

A definition of poverty in Canada used to be, " an inability to pay one month accommodation with one week's wages." Sad. Time to look outside Canada for an affordable place to live.

Managing money is different from accumulating wealth, and the lack of investment education in schools may explain why people struggle to maintain their financial gains. The examples you provided are relevant, and I personally benefited from the market crisis, as I embrace challenging times while others tend to avoid them. Well, at least my advisor does too, jokingly.

rent in Toronto was O.K. until around 2016, when the immigration floodgates opened (also when Trudeau started his "Destroy Canada" plan). A million extra people, with no extra units. An apartment I was renting in 2015 for $800 is now $1,800. Countries in Europe have taken steps to block immigration, I wonder if they will EVER do that here....

For 2023, it’s hard to nail down specific predictions for the housing market is because it’s not yet clear how quickly or how much the Federal Reserve can bring down inflation and borrowing costs without tanking buyer demand for everything from homes to cars.

Building affordable housing is easy. But…why the hell would developers do that? There’s no money to be made. Fellow Canadians…the next to you vote, DEMAND that the candidate you’re considering supporting has put affordable housing numero uno on their list of promises.

I live in a nice place with reasonable rent, it's inclusive. The landlord is a decent person. I have not seen a rent increase from him since 2006!! But even he broke under the strain. I told him I wasn't going to give him grief. It's still nice rent. But the reality is, I'm likely going to be here on my last day if something miraculous doesn't happen. Because it's either here for 800, or anywhere else for 1200. And as I am on disability and so is my spouse, this is it. There is nowhere else. And locally (Lindsay) the average is really 1400 to 1600 for a 1 bedroom apartment. The average singular individual simply can't manage on 800 bucks plus utilities, you either have 2 incomes contributing, or you are out of luck. Something has to happen, and I frankly have no idea what that needs to be. I love my country dearly, but it is not easy to live here if you are an average schmuck and live alone. You need that extra income.

I just checked what is available below 2k in Toronto there is basically no condo apartment at all available! This is what realtors and builders did over years and years! They sold places with crazy prices promising such guaranteed rentals. If you are working professional, it is no sense accepting any job below 200k.

When will the Government step in and do something for the people 😢

And the landlords are trying to make old tenants vacate to get new tenants for higher price. I personally experienced an issue with my landlord who asked us to vacate if we want to make any lease changes(adding another tenant) they were literally forcing is to do it.

I’m paying $500 monthly for my 1 bed here in suburban Tokyo, a region with the same population as the whole of Canada

This was by design and took some hard work to accomplish. First have to convert the system to permanent surplus immigration to create a bottleneck in rental supply. Then offer zero interest loans to drive prices up creating a bias toward condos and away from rental units. Once property has skyrocketed and most people are in a leveraged situation then rents will have to go up to pay off the principle and interest. Raise interest rates and boost competition for jobs to keep pay low. You have a group that is professional and under that you can extract everything from.

My daughter & I had to relocate from being a ' super' for a 12 unit apt in Moncton,paying 475.00 for a 2 bedroom. The average rent that tenants paid was 675. For 2 bedroom.The owner decided to sell, he told me rent will be going up to 1200. Approx after renovations also. We had absolutely no choice but to move .This was in 2020. I was told to call New Brunswick housing program,,,well that was a total joke ,a 5 YEAR WAIT! I could have been homeless,Fortunately I moved to PEI ,I applied for subsidized apartments and within 4 Months I have an apartment !

I am in process of leaving Canada after 23 yrs. Its no longer affordable to live here. All I am doing is to work for my rent. There is no point of wasting rest of my life in here lik this

$2000 per month is being modest, it's more like $3000-$8000 per month in the GTA. I'm in Mississauga ON, rent a small 3 bedroom house for $3500 plus utilities, my friends are saying that I'm lucky I found such a good deal, their rent is $5500 a month. My husband and I both work full time and rent eats up about 60% of our income. It's super hard to live in this country. We've been renting for 19 years and gave up our dream of starting a family or buying a house because it's too unaffordable, we both have to work to pay bills, we both make pretty good money, but the cost of everything, rent, utilities,car insurance for 2 cars, food, average clothing, anything else we need, we don't go to restaurants or go out much, and $12, 000a month barely covers a basic life in Canada. Also there is no free daycare for married people so we have to choose to not have kids and pay crazy rent VS living on the street, this is the real reality of many Canadians.

$15 an hr at 40hrs a week is $2400 a month Rent starts at $2000 in vancouver income assistance caps at 1350, disability caps 2000 our government can't do math, or expects us not to wear clothes, eat food, take transit, own a vehicle or pay digital bills.

I'm considering leaving back to my home country after 12 long years. My parents bought a beautiful condo, 3 br, with pool, gym, and a gated community area, parking, etc for $110k in Goa, India. With the rents I've been paying, and doing the math, I would've owned 2 condos in 10 years. I work from home and earn in USD, and I've really been thinking of saying farewell to this country.

Terrible place - drug addicts, crime rates are really high, broken healthcare(No family physicians, Long hr of wait in ER, No surgery date available), Expensive housing and grocery. I wonder how middle class canadian citizens are surviving in canada.

That girl is lucky she has no health concerns, or job problems.

Doug Ford allowed rent control to be increased. vote the cons out because they support an unregulated inconvenient market to rule.

You ask me where my hard earned paychecks goes...rent is number 1

Thank you so much for this segment. It was great and the points are spot on.

Newly renovated apartments in the rental building I live are now (Jan 2023): 2450 for 1BR and 2650 for 2BR (i see them on rental company website). Prices after apartment renovation were 1300 and 1600 respectively just 2 yrs ago, It's insane! I live in New Westminster, Greater Vancouver BC. this is 65 yr old building, and when ppl move out, suites are renovated and rented out at a much higher price.

stop the endless greed of landlords and large rental corporations. politicians please make rent price control laws. these greedy people are ruining others lives and even causing homelessness at this point.

The worst thing is that it is unlikely that renting prices go down even after inflation comes under control.

You can't have housing be a human right and an unlimited profiting item at the same time.

If I had a million dollars; I’d leave Canada Thankfully I left over twenty years ago.

"Getting out" to rural areas isn't an option anymore, either.

The competition is so tough to get a room on rent that the landlord asks for paystubs, 1 year bank statements, criminal records, credit checks, full month's rent as just security, references from my 2 previous landlords, and my current company boss. Even the canada's top defense company i got interviewed for, haven't asked that much checks. All just bcz there are so many people so the only easy way to filter out is to make it harder and expensive

We need a revolution, the housing stock should be in common ownership of the working people (not lazy capitalist landlords who evict homeless in -40)

The 2nd largest country in the world. A population of only 37m. A crazy super low population density (4 peoples per square kilometer) And yes we are watching this right now

Imagine if everyone was just given a free house or apartment. Why can't this be done? Why do we chose to live in a system that requires you to pay to live?

The biased focus of this summary is mind boggling. What is the point of focusing on migration within Canada? It accounts for an extremely small amount of the housing prices nationwide. The truth is that our government made a choice long ago to sell the dream of home ownership. Housing prices are high because home ownership has been promoted for decades by the government. If we wanted to, we could do as Switzerland did and create a stable housing market. The Economist did a great video about it: How an obsession with home ownership can ruin the economy. CBC's analysis largely promotes the narrative that uncontrollable, external factors are to blame for housing and the economy. They will not question the status quo of current political and economic thinking. As a result, CBC's de facto function appears to be pacifying the Canadian public by selling them on the idea that the situation is beyond anyone's control. It's not.

It certainly has to do with Canada wholesale importation of international students from the third world. Imagine all 2 billion people from India is imported in to Canada , what would that look like ? This is crazy , Canadian politicians' desperation for income from boutique SCHOOLS via importation of kids from INDIA ! Not only housing is an issue , even JOBS ( menial JOBS) are scarce , so what can these kids imported from India do in Canada to make a living after attending these boutique schools , commit suicide as 5th Estate reported !

Everything is flipping high in this country 😢

This country is just one big monopoly game that a lot of us a loosing

There ios a connection between high immigration rates and high rents; obvious case of supply and demand.

0:40 Average rent per month at $2,000. That’s CRAZY!!! OMG!!!

This is a dire situation. Even with more housing stock, rents will not be lowered. When demand wavers so does construction. Owners want to take take take. Legislation needs to be put in place that either directly or indirectly tanks the value of homes and rentals by at least 50%. Or we need to freeze the market until wages catch up. It needs to be drastic at this point, I can’t see something like that happening in a clean orderly way

@9:00 is this person really just a friend? Lol Danielle is lucky to have such a friend

Off topic, but how did you guys do the white board animation?

It's really quite simple. 1. Lower interest rates make borrowing cheaper 2. Cheaper borrowing makes people buy more homes inflating the price 3. Inflation starts to increase so interest rates increase 4. Variable mortgage holders see their costs go up while most people wait and see as rates increase their monthly payments 5. These people waiting decide to rent in the meantime 6. The landlords who have seen their mortgage costs increase with rising rates try and pass on the cost to renters of which there are a lot. 7. High rents. LOWERING INTEREST RATES BELOW INFLATION IS A BAILOUT FOR RICH LANDLORDS. Remember this next time you think that high interest rates are why we are here, they aren't they're just a symptom.

Houses in my area in Ontario are no longer affordable. I wouldn't be able to pay for the new price if I moved to a new rental unit.

i still remember when a big mac combo was $3.49 :(

This is why I offer coownership in Durham Region. Its not a perfect solution but it's an affordable option.

There are several serious challenges Canadians face when they have to get temporary accommodations because they cannot afford rent. But you guys at CBC chose to focus on how Canadians do not invest long-term in communities. This report is underwhelming to say the least.

My rent went up $500 this year, my employer want to increase my pay olny 2% while we saw 8% inflation! This is just insane!

My partner and I rented a North York (Toronto) condo apartment (700 sqft 1+1) for $2350 last year. We bought our own place and moved out last month. New asking rent is $2650. Only 4 prospective renters showed up within the first few days and it was already rented out.

There is little to no REAL oversight as it relates to rental pricings and some of the places are beggars belief. I was in the market a month ago. Saw an add on a site. First red flag, there was no picture. I reached out the contact provided and asked for a showing which he agreed to. Went as agreed and met the gentelman, he was (based on our short interaction) a nice man. He said the place needed a little "cleaning up" whuch he was gonna have done as a tenant was currently occupying the space. I understand so I wasn't concerned much about that, plus if need be, I could clean the place myself. Then he showed me the space. For $1400+, the place in totality was a little more than storage space. It was less than half the size of the space that I had been occupying at that point. The fixtures were VERY DATED. The place just need to be gutted. I could have temporarily overlooked the ridiculous size if the place was even nicely done. Then we can go into the shared living where the amount of persons sharing in order to reduce on the cost of rent vs the amount of bathroom facilities is cause for concern. MANY people in places like Toronto and Mississauga are living in slum like conditions just to have a place to rest their head. There needs to be a proper system with oversight in place. One which protects the landlords and renters who are going about things the right way.

When you bring more people into an area than there are dwellings to accommodate them, there is only one way for prices to go. Government needs to get back what it did in the 60s and 70s and invest into purpose-built rental housing address the supply issue. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. Those calling on landlords to sell secondary properties... that doesn't put an additional rental into the pool, it actually diminishes the stock. Supply is the clear problem & it needs to be fixed.

6.8% inflation? That's cute.

An hour outside of Toronto, there are a great many empty apartments, a great many houses for sale. People are living in tents because a great many commercial buildings have changed hands at prices that are no longer realistic. Rents are a reflection of desperate landlords. And the banks are on the hook for it. So they are worried. Among 10 homes in my block 3 of them are for sale. Two are actually empty. One has been for sale for over 1 1/2year. Real estate prices are falling, have fallen by several hundreds of thousands of $$$$ in the past year. Also people have moved home with their parents, they have buddied up several to an apartment. And that will have an effect on sales of everything. Four people in an apartment only need one fridge, one stove, one dishwasher etc. See how this works? People adapt.

Prices in Halifax is just out of control. Everyone moved here thinking it's cheaper, and while it is cheaper than maybe Toronto, it's just getting insane to rent anywhere here.

Canada is mostly a landlord country. There’s barely any competition or productive stuff that happens here so the only way to make money is to flip/rent properties.

Bank of Canada “policy interest rate” increases and additional Taxes at all levels of government are responsible for leaving people with less money to live on. Perhaps if we all stop eating, driving, and heating our homes for a month - prices will start to come down. It is extremely frustrating to be squeezed so tightly by Canadian institutions, just to watch the same groups announce expansive projects with extreme costs using our money.

400,000+ new immigrants per year adds to this. 400,000 new units aren't built per year

I'm amazed comments are open.

My co-workers and Bosses have left their over-priced places, they moved off to a another good way of living. and that’s living in their Cars and work places, they still work, but they will no longer pay super high rent in Canada.

A whole segment and not once did they mention how the dollar has been become devalued. Hilarious

I heard a lot of landlords saying rent prices will never go down, which is the same rhetoric of people at the top of any bubble. This is going to burst soon.

Housing cooperatives? Zoning changes? Could community living be made easier to do?

This is going to be very cruel joke to our new immigrants that are coming to help with our labour shortage.

I just live 200 km from Toronto and I still pay $1500 and the crazy part is I paid 4m rent as advance 😝 just to block the place 😂

Someone who earns $15.00 per hour, won't be able to pay this amount.

living in Lévis Québec and rent here is about 1/3 of what i was paying in Halifax 3 yrs ago. Halifax, iften times they require 1 and last months rent plus damage deposit in the same amount a 1 months rent. some places you need 2500+ just to move in. and the apts look decrepit with absolute base materials in kitchen and bath. dreary apts. Québec city on the other hand is really exquisite apts at a very reasonable price but they tend to be smaller in size. rhe 2 cites are not even comparable.

Low supply and high demand. Plus ridiculous zoning laws and other bs by the govt.

Thank you for sharing.

Will there ever be a discussion about the proliferation of professional tenants and how much the province enables them? Once someone establishes tenancy, if they stop paying rent, it will take atleast a year for them to be evicted through the LTB. Let’s say there are 10,000 professional tenants in Ontario. If each evade rent by $10,000 every year, that’s $100,000,000 in lost revenue which ultimately fall on the paying tenants. That’s not a leaky bucket, that’s a bottomless bucket. We could easily build an entire neighbourhood of affordable housing every year with that’s kind of money, but the province and LTB keep enabling grifters at the sake of the paying tenants. For the life of me don’t understand how this aspect never gets any discussion considering how much money is being being lost.

You get what you vote for, when your government opens the printing press to hand our free money to big consulting firms, don’t be surprised that money becomes worth less and life unaffordable.

Thank you for this informative video. I am really enjoying this series of videos from Andrew Chang that speaks to the middle income groups of us everyday Janes.

Just curious (not an economist, only took basic econ 100 & 101). How would a property value go down but its rent simultaneously go up? Seeing this now throughout my city (Edmonton, AB) and am curious to know if its correlated or not? Thanks in advance.

Landlord increasing 8% in Ontario in building built before 1950. They got approval from LTB to do that. It seems they know how to get around rent control in Ontario

"He's letting her live there for free." LOL. Wonder how that's gonna work out

That’s why so Many people leaving Canada to live abroad

Well explained. I moved from onterrible to Nova Scotia 2021

Lol that's what we were paying in 2002. When I moved to go to school off campus, rent not a mortgage.

Well at least Daniella is a pretty blond who got a hopeful guy "friend" to pay for her. Any suggestions for those of us who weren't born a pretty gal? Or if you're, say, a guy? 🤷🏻‍♂️

We relocated from BC to the prairies last year and bought a gorgeous old two story house for less than $100K. Lots of sweat equality but tree lined streets, squirrels, back lane and potatoes in the backyard and bills all paid.

I moved to Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Vancouver) in 2009 when I first came back from the US and was able to find a top floor, 950 sq ft, 1 bedroom for 700 a month. I cant imagine what that wonderful little landing pad for me would cost now...

THe thing is you can be in an apartment that isn't too pricey right now and pay for apartment insurance but the minute you have a fire...yes you will have your apartment insurance cover you for the fire but then you need to find a new place that cost $300 more a month for the same amount of space you used to have. I know if I have to move, I have to go to a bachelor at 250 square feet and no longer can afford a one bedroom apartment to live by myself. I work full-time at about $5 over minimum wage and this is my reality. 20 years of experience in the admin field and accounting clerk with a college diploma...and if I can't even find a bachelor apartment...I'd be living with a roommate at 47 years old or a room for rent in a family's basement or a tent in the winter....pathetic and we pay 24% of our pay cheque for this and 15% on things I buy except for some groceries. 40% of taxes for a government that can't even make sure that people who work full-time can have a place to live and be able to eat and pay for heat and lights plus a bus pass to get to and from work.

Investors who bought property in the last 10-15 years are paying an arm and a leg due to the rate hikes right now. Therefore rent goes up. People who own homes are not in a better situation right now either. 75% of mortgage payments go into interest (the banks) and the rest in principal. So that $2000 you are paying may or may not cover what the landlord is paying

At least your news media talks abt this. The media says nothing here except "trump bad,".

You know, the rents are high but what makes it worse in Canada is relatively low salaries compared to the US, even dollar for dollar without accounting for the strength of the US dollar.

10:50 It's not just that they are renting why they don't volunteer -- it's that we're all too busy working like 60-80 hours a week just to make rent, so even if we were going to stay in the same city, there's no time for volunteering or any sort of community engagement. Those are activities only rich people can afford to do

Population growth in Canada is completely driven by immigration. If we don’t address the root cause behind the demand i.e. high/out of control immigration then you have to accept that things will continue to get extremely worth. Specifically with the plan to increase immigration intake by almost 20%.

As a law student I’m studying sharia law which is Islamic law and I specialize in economics we have a whole economic system so something like that is going on would be forbidden and illegal no wonder people are on the street and homeless suicide and depression is at its all time high it’s heartbreaking you judge a society based on how they treat the needy the poor and the elder and not how technologically advanced they are 😢

Keep up the solid reporting.

Same here in the US, but not quite as high. GREED!

In 2015 I was renting a whole basement apartment in delta BC for $650 including utilities. I moved from BC leaving my parents and siblings, I moved to kitchener Ontario and in 2017 and I bought an old 2 bedroom condo for $170k. Then in 2021 my old ratchet basement unit condo sold for $350k so then I moved to Windsor Ontario with my daughter and I bought a single family older home in downtown for $279k. My mortgage is $950 for 3 bedroom. I make $24/hr working fulltime, it's enough for me and my daughter. I still want to move to BC to be close to family because I miss them but i can't leave the comforts that I'm getting here in Windsor, I can afford my life easily as a single mom.

They are saying inflation is 6.8 percent well milk went from 4.69 last summer to 5.69 now that's more than 6 percent that's more like 30 per cent. Cantaloupe went from 2.99 to 3.98 that's more an 6 percent. Tinned cat food went from 22.99 for a case of catfood in Oct to 28.47 now. Things at tge dollar store went from 1.25 to 1.75 up to 2.50 for the same thing. At dollar tree things went from 1.25 to 150 that's almost 25 percent. Frozen fruit went from 11.99 to 14.99 so how is that 6.8 percent