What it’s really like finding a place to rent in Toronto 

Once again, the first lady brings up a key point: the immigration paradox. A lack of affordability is destroying local household formation so we say we need immigration to replace our population. But immigration is a key contributor to unaffordability which is the very thing that is destroying our ability to replenish ourselves.

Letting 1.5 million immigrants in the country in a year and not building houses and rental units to keep on par with housing increase requirements is a big government failure especially for low and medium income earners BUILD UNTIL THE MARKET BALANCES

We built a Canada where we had to stop having children.

Rent typically eats up about 70-80% of a person's paycheque now. That's insane. There is no where in Canada where a person working a middle class or lower job can afford a one bedroom apartment. We need to get control over prices because these price hikes are destroying society.

Even the dogs are depressed by the interview.

A friend of mine moved back to TO from Alberta in 2021 and had to pay a years worth of rent upfront to get a place. He lost out on 2 others he was looking at bc those people outbid him w 2 yrs of rent up front. It’s crazy!

I dont know how anyone affords kids. Daycare costs an entire paycheck. Its really nice she has someone to share her costs with.

The middle classes are being erased completely. The cost of commuting is unaffordable too. But Politicians should know these apartment units could start to be used to accommodate 10 to 15 people who can pool there money for rent. When is the government going to intervene? Do they want citizens sleeping in drawers?

It's hard to think of what it will be like in 10 years from now. I am really worried about a total collapse of society

I moved out at 18 with my sister and had to move back into my parent’s house because I couldn’t find a rental for my partner and I. A year later after living in a room with a hot plate, I tried to move out with my partner again with even more money saved. It took us an entire year to find a place in our rural community. I had landlords that wouldn’t even ask for references, down payments, or pay stubs. They’d ask my age and TELL ME What they thought I could afford at age 20. (I could have had a year’s worth of money in my pocket but they’d never know because the conversations didn’t even go that far.) I was told (by the guy having no knowledge of my income) that a 20 year old can only afford $1000 or less a month. And that I should ask my mom to sign a lease for me. My parents bought their first home in 2002 at 23 years old but today, landlords seem to think 20 year olds should have their parents as the lease holders or else they don’t deserve housing. How are young people supposed to gain the experience and the 55 references they always ask for when NOBODY is willing to even look their direction. That landlord telling me I could only afford $1000 a month probably doesn’t realize that you can’t get a room for that price today. Currently I’m living in a basement suite reminiscent of a hole in the ground. My bedroom barely fits a double bed. It’s infested with spiders, our fridge was last serviced in 1993. When we moved in I was so grateful that we had a (musty dirty) stove that I broke down and cried. My partner and I pay more for this place than my parent’s mortgage for their 3 bedroom home. When my dad came in to visit for the first time he thought I got scammed for the price. Nope. I went on Facebook marketplace and showed him 5 listings of single rooms that cost the same price as my apartment. The people in my community don’t want new housing. They protest every single new building being built. Most of them are boomers who got their homes in the 80s saying “$500k homes are luxury” or rich middle aged families that moved into town from more expensive cities after the pandemic that tell people like me who have lived here for my entire life that “we don’t need more housing in town, if you can’t afford it than leave”

Sadly it’s not only in Toronto but it’s also everywhere in the world . I’m originally from Ethiopia and in the capital, rent for 1 bedroom ( in a nice neighborhood ) is 2000 USD!! I kid you not - this is Ethiopia !!!

Moving to rural Canada is probably the only option even though you may not get the dream job or jobs in your field.

This is horrible. I’m in my 30’s living with my parents. Can’t even afford a room on my own, let alone getting married and getting my own place. Don’t think, I’ll be able to afford something in the GTA and surrounding areas, and probably will be forced to go to another province or State.

"challenging people for mortal kombat" is wild

It's like living in hell on earth in Toronto. And it was not like this in year's gone by.

"my rent has doubled in the past 10 years" 4:29 If you want your money to double in 10 years you need a compound interest rate of 7.2%; 5% would take 14 years. The system is designed to encourage a positive rate of inflation. There is simply no way to put a hard cap on rents with the way the monetary system currently functions; it's an impossibility within the current banking and monetary system. I agree that in the past few decades, inflation has far outpaced regular jobs and regular salaries. The system is no longer working for the people, and something needs to change.

watching this from San Francisco, wistful at the low prices compared to my CAD 3,300/month studio in a century old building without any bells and whistles.

This situation was inevitable when the LTB of Ontario allows non paying tenants to live rent free for 1 year+. That shortfall will always fall on paying tenants. That is the only way the system can work. This will be the reality until the LTB completely overhauled.

Honestly, if I were the Turkish family I’d try and save enough in Canada to buy in Turkiye and then go home and live by the med.

Solution - get investment banks and hedge fund speculators out of global housing markets.

I can hear the pain and worry in the first women’s voice.😢

The fact that there is already an excessive amount of demand awaiting its absorption, despite how everyone is frightened and calling the crash, is another reason why it is less likely to occur that way. 2008 saw no one, at least not the broad public, making this forecast, as I'll explain below. The ownership rate was noted to have peaked in 2004 in the other comment. Having previously peaked in the second quarter of 2020, we are currently at the median level. Between 2008 and 2012, it dropped by 3%, and by the second quarter of 2020, it had dropped from 68 to 65.

I lost my job in Jukt. Moving into my van tonight as I've been priced out of having a roof over my head.

rich getting richer and destroying many peoples lives, the canada way of life. govt really should just make a permanent rent price limit to stop the out of control greed of corporations and landlords. i dont understand why they wont. i dont personally live in a large city like this but costs are becoming just as bad in the smaller towns now too. something needs to be done, hope govt someday wakes up and does the right thing to protect its citizens.

People need to pay high prices to pay the tax that the local government needs. If the local government chooses to spend on finding a solution to pay less on rent there's going to be an exchange. If the local government will let us pay less on rent and fund money on rent but building apartments still the same and there's gonna be no progress in lowering the apartment prices.

If you're working 70-80 hours a week and you have no savings leftover, perhaps seriously consider moving to a cheaper city.

We talk about affordable housing campaigns and plans. Where are they? Where is the government funding going to? How is this landlord's issues for rent being high, it's not like no one is paying?

If you have a full time job, then not sure doing part time helps as your part time job after taxes would be close to nothing

As a landlord, I find it crazy to ask a year in advance rent…you are taking people possibility to survive, have an emergency money or even money for a down payment

Well, everyone is complaining about rent prices in Toronto but keeps living there and paying rent.. have u ever considered connection between high rent prices and high demand? Why ppl are keep living in Toronto if they cannot afford it? Canada has a lot of places to live, why Toronto? Everyone is keep saying “there are more opportunities”, really? Tell me how many months needs to spend in order to get a job there? What opportunities when 1000 folks apply for one job position?

Housing starts need to be controlled like OPEC. One needs to only build enough to protect the housing price of existing home owners

Benefit of rent control -- my rent has increased by 15% over the past 10 years.

Who can afford to keep dogs in these tough times, and they have 2 of them?

You interviewed articulate and smart women. 😊

What I'm hearing is they chose to live in Toronto...move! No one is forcing you to live in an unaffordable city. I did and it was a great decision.

Moved from Canada to the US and my salary went up 6.5x after currency conversion. I'm a principal product manage at Amazon and make $650k CDN and only pay $1800 in rent in New Jersey. The US is MUCH more affordable just because the salaries are way higher.

0:45 she said mortal kombat 😂😂😂 I’m finished

How can there be a cap when the cost of everything is going up? You can't expect to still be paying $900 per month for rent, that ship has sailed. Most landlords are not trying to be greedy, it's just that they have costs on their end that are going up (property taxes, condo fees, utilities). if renters were homeowners they would experience the same rising costs of having a home.

It's like that spa where pay pay pay and then no happy ending

Are cats and dogs really necessary? Instead build friendship with humans.

Japanese internet cafe capsule hotels are available yet?

It's shouldn't be this way. That's so sad😢

"I am working 80 hour weeks" - and then government takes 30% income tax from top part of the salary. Plus 13% sales tax. It's not worth working such overtime if you keep only half the pay from it.

Summer of 96' full studio $500 a month @ Church and Wellesley, times sure have changed

We can even capitalize in the fact that 20 people living in the same mansion its like a tv reality show that can be viral like the show Jersey shore lol

A private space is intimate and vital, so a living costs crisis is painful.

If all the money people makes go to shelter, what about the rest of the economy?

I'm tryna move to Toronto from Montreal for school with my mother and brother, but this sht is so crazy, I keep telling my mom we should just move out the country altogether since we speak French as well. I'm at a loss.

Same thing in San Francisco!

It was always like this..less income more expenses you get trapped in this vicious cycle of life where you have to pay the price to live peacefully that is why people come from all over the world to live peacefully if they recall.

Look 20people living in a huge mansion that cost 10k$ a month so if all 20 peach in 600$monthly we got total of 12k$ a month we be left with 2k$ for food or electricity bills thats why i say its simple to be living as a group theres so much advantage like socializing or more free time because we are all invole in the kerp the manson cleaned

kitchener is Full and thanks to these people. we cant afford anything either

I would never miss a place like Toronto. So much chaos!!!

Two dogs?????? How much does that cost?

Live below your means

Toronto made "rent eviction" possible in the GTA.

I live in Ottawa.

Canada is the 2nd largest country on planet Earth WHY do people decide i'm going to move to the most expensive place in the country then complain about costs while there is thousands of other communities that have tons of homes in their price range ?

The key is the property taxes to be charged. If the city people live more in densities of high rises buildings, limited land could offer more affordable housing for people, more but less costly public services, more profitable business properties and public transportation becoming profitable too. To achieve that, there must have a change of property taxes. High rises buildings should pay much less taxes than single houses, and the taxes be rated by the population densities and the property values.

rent control is the real problem. soon as there is rent control no one invests in rental buildings and the rents sky rocket.

the greed of the older generations in canada is horrendous... young people cant afford a house let alone to have kids.

It is all relative, back in my day, daycare was the price of rent also. Salaries needed to increase with inflation decades ago. Canada collapsed a long time ago, it is just being more publized due to social media.

Is that dog at 0:36 wearing a diaper? And what's with this "couple"? And the pink hair. God help us.

We need more social housing but we just keep build non-stop condos and "luxury" rentals.

I'm pretty sure the Gustav Klimt painting on their wall at 0:33 is hung sideways.

The future in question sounds very scary... like tf are we gonna eat plastic like is anyone not concerned the environment everything crisis,

The solution is to build communities outside the city and to not commute into Toronto. The problem is we're letting in tons of immigrants before we've built the infrastructure to do that. Immigration is great and necessary for us but we need to focus on building homes for them and people already here before letting the flood gates open.

We ordered lunch to share. Cooking is cheaper!

our world is a total dystopia right now and I am praying for the best and humanity but hope is dying on the inside

Don’t worry Christine Freeland has the answer lol just budget with a Disney Channel it’s easy peasy lol

sooo expensive

This is why I want to leave canada. The cost of living is too insane now.

So the fact that trudOE brought in 1 mill newcomers in a system that had few places to rent and in 2025 he wants to bring 1.5 more million more we had 250k places built and he brought in more then we can handle. we were slow to start off as nova scotia We just started to develop Alot of new projects going up corner unit of a building across post office 2800 a month tell me how this is affordable :. New comers come with a check rent paid and hit the food banks with a cab running How does this make sense family of 5 pull up in a bmw. better yet you hear dude on mobility scooter says just waiting on my spinners I ordered for his mobility scooter we are challenged til something is fixed

And here I thought I was the only feeling the Inflation Pinch and Scarcity Anxiety around "affordable housing", facing some of the same trajectories and dilemmas these women articulate. And where are the Male rental seekers and our particular experiences/perspectives...? All Govt need to get back into building and making Affordable Housing their Business. We cannot simply sluff off the task of Fixing this problem to "Privatization" and the "Free Markets".

Working full time n part time is not a life. This a goal better yourself but now it does not matter..because its so expensive n people are being kick out from their home because new landlords r pushing people out by not fixing the basic things like appliances n they have apartments empty with suppliers available on an empty apartments but yet they refuse to provide to those that are waiting. Its really a struggle for canadians can u believe for new people. Its sad....u cant even stay to live more 10 years now because new landlords only care about money. I see how seniors r being kick out n if they can offered the rent can u imagine the new generations. Before u had a limit of peopke living in apartments but now ots like more than 4 in 1 unit its sad how people are push to😮

Then freaking move. Toronto isn't the only place to live. Accommodation in Montreal is affordable with some of the lowest cost of living expenses in the country. Yes, you'll have to learn French, but surely that's better than living like a peasant. Living in Alberta is also a great option, high wages and low cost of housing. You have two options for great cities in Calgary and Edmonton. You can buy a new house 30 minutes outside of the city for $400k in Calgary. This kind of existence is unnecessary.

Taking care of a dog doesn’t help you with rent…

Rent is very cheap in Winnipeg, Move to Manitoba

3:30 if you are freelance and work remote, then why are you restricting yourself to living in the city? You made the decision to live in the city.

Rent money is dead money. You need to build equity for yourself

just ban airbnb, and then there will be a flood of vacant rental properties

Government Housing across Canada should be fired to not have seen the chaos with rent prices….asleep at the wheel BIG TIME

That's why you rent someone who can pay big$$$$ and you pay for the landlord taxes, so enjoyed your stay in city's

Remember before covid when everyone was chanting tax the billionaires rofl. This is still their revenge.

I don’t give a F*ck for newcomers. My concern is for Canadians, employed who cannot buy a home and facing retirement in a few years.

and keep bringing in the immigrants.

Toronto is unliveable. Moved there in 2015, when we could still find 1 bedroom apartment for 900$. Left Toronto early 2023, with 1 bed at 2500$ on average. This is nonsensical. But they continue to promote Canada as the Eldorado and keep bringing in a massive amount of immigrants. This country is going downhill. On another note : y’all are complaining about cost of living but can afford to pet two big dogs? Make it make sense 🤷🏽‍♂️

Newcomers need to go to smaller towns. It's also easier to find work in smaller cities and towns. Stop all moving to the big cities...it's just one big stress on your lives.

Simple solution: reduce immigration, increasing housing

Tell the government to stop giving money to other countries. And stop bloated government pensions. And no tax for income 50k and under.

Impossible. That's the answer

But it's like that everyone in the world literally had relatives in Lyon, France complaining about rising rent, had relatives in Barcelona, Spain complain about rising rent had relatives even in Morocco complain about rising rent. I lived in the UK before Immigrating to Canada to explore North America living 50km outside of Toronto and pay $800 CAD for Renting a room it's doable, It's simple as finding a place outside Toronto to live I understand public transport ain't as good as Europe but owning a car in Canada is so, so, so much cheaper than owning a car in Europe!!! It's also figuring out finances like in this video they ordered lunch instead of buying produce and cooking at home which could run you further in money like fast food ain't cheap also owning a pet is expensive as well I'm not saying don't enjoy the spending of life but set aside finances for more important things like a roof over you head and running a car then if you have anything left over enjoy spending it!!!

Canada isn’t Toronto

Free Northern Ontario !!!

This all could be solved by Trudeau but that would be coming from a real leader and not a traitor and liar.

More people need to move to SK, MB

Congrats on building homes in Canada 🇨🇦

Maybe Canada should stop importing people to keep housing prices high and developers rich.

If you’re over the age of 30, you don’t own a home and you voted liberal or NDP the last two re-elections, it’s literally true to say you asked for this. Nobody will ever remember or care but the current scenario has been talked about endlessly for at least 2 years in detail.

Noone: Canada: "Lets buy some drones!"