By The Canadian Press
June 19, 2025
A woman enters a building next to a sign advertising an apartment for rent on moving day in Montreal, Monday, July 1, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
TORONTO — A new report suggests Canadian renters continue to face affordability challenges even as asking rent prices have fallen this year, while those considering the leap to home ownership are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Royal LePage’s 2025 Canadian renters report, which includes results from a survey conducted by Burson, found 37 per cent of renters in Canada spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs.Read more from the report
The survey of more than 1,800 renters in early June indicated that 15 per cent of respondents were spending more than half of their income on rent, while 37 per cent were spending 30 per cent or less.
Rents have eased for eight consecutive months, but remain well above historical norms, according to the report.
It said rents are 5.7 per cent higher nationally than they were two years ago and 12.6 per cent higher than three years ago. Over the past half decade, average asking rents in Canada have risen by an average of 4.1 per cent annually, outpacing wage growth.
Due to those affordability challenges, four-in-10 respondents said they have reduced spending on groceries and food, while three-in-10 have reduced contributions to savings or retirement.
“Rental markets tend to respond more slowly than resale housing to changes in the economy. Home prices have softened in many regions through the first half of the year, and we’re now seeing that relief begin to flow through to the rental sector,” said Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper in a press release.
“Yet, for those aspiring to own, this may be the moment to take a harder look at what’s possible. With prices down in many markets, rates easing, and wages growing faster than the cost of housing, the path to ownership — long a distant beacon for many — may now be coming into clearer focus."
The report said more than half of all renters surveyed indicate they plan to buy a property in the future, but just 16 per cent said they plan to do so within the next two years.
Twenty-eight per cent of renters said they considered purchasing a property before signing or renewing their current rental agreement while 40 per cent are waiting for home prices to decline and 29 per cent are holding out for further interest rate cuts.
Soper said the data shows many tenants “are motivated to get a foot on the property ladder.” But he warned that waiting for the perfect window of opportunity could be a mistake.
“In Canada’s least affordable cities, entry-level opportunities have improved significantly, with home prices off last year’s peaks, incomes up and borrowing costs trending lower,” he said.
“Still, many renters ... are choosing to wait. History suggests they may be disappointed. Over the past 75 years, Canadian home values have risen approximately five per cent annually, running consistently ahead of inflation.”
Not all renters are waiting on the sidelines to buy, however. Nearly one-third of renters said they do not plan to purchase a home at all, according to the report.
Of those respondents, 53 per cent said they don’t believe their income will allow them to buy a property in the neighbourhood they want to live in and 40 per cent said that renting remains more affordable.
Another 40 per cent said they don’t want to take on the responsibilities of maintaining a property.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.
Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press
June 19, 2025
A woman enters a building next to a sign advertising an apartment for rent on moving day in Montreal, Monday, July 1, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham HughesTORONTO — A new report suggests Canadian renters continue to face affordability challenges even as asking rent prices have fallen this year, while those considering the leap to home ownership are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Royal LePage’s 2025 Canadian renters report, which includes results from a survey conducted by Burson, found 37 per cent of renters in Canada spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs.Read more from the report
The survey of more than 1,800 renters in early June indicated that 15 per cent of respondents were spending more than half of their income on rent, while 37 per cent were spending 30 per cent or less.
Rents have eased for eight consecutive months, but remain well above historical norms, according to the report.
It said rents are 5.7 per cent higher nationally than they were two years ago and 12.6 per cent higher than three years ago. Over the past half decade, average asking rents in Canada have risen by an average of 4.1 per cent annually, outpacing wage growth.
Due to those affordability challenges, four-in-10 respondents said they have reduced spending on groceries and food, while three-in-10 have reduced contributions to savings or retirement.
“Rental markets tend to respond more slowly than resale housing to changes in the economy. Home prices have softened in many regions through the first half of the year, and we’re now seeing that relief begin to flow through to the rental sector,” said Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper in a press release.
“Yet, for those aspiring to own, this may be the moment to take a harder look at what’s possible. With prices down in many markets, rates easing, and wages growing faster than the cost of housing, the path to ownership — long a distant beacon for many — may now be coming into clearer focus."
The report said more than half of all renters surveyed indicate they plan to buy a property in the future, but just 16 per cent said they plan to do so within the next two years.
Twenty-eight per cent of renters said they considered purchasing a property before signing or renewing their current rental agreement while 40 per cent are waiting for home prices to decline and 29 per cent are holding out for further interest rate cuts.
Soper said the data shows many tenants “are motivated to get a foot on the property ladder.” But he warned that waiting for the perfect window of opportunity could be a mistake.
“In Canada’s least affordable cities, entry-level opportunities have improved significantly, with home prices off last year’s peaks, incomes up and borrowing costs trending lower,” he said.
“Still, many renters ... are choosing to wait. History suggests they may be disappointed. Over the past 75 years, Canadian home values have risen approximately five per cent annually, running consistently ahead of inflation.”
Not all renters are waiting on the sidelines to buy, however. Nearly one-third of renters said they do not plan to purchase a home at all, according to the report.
Of those respondents, 53 per cent said they don’t believe their income will allow them to buy a property in the neighbourhood they want to live in and 40 per cent said that renting remains more affordable.
Another 40 per cent said they don’t want to take on the responsibilities of maintaining a property.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.
Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press
Home construction must double over next decade to restore 2019 affordability: CMHC
By The Canadian Press
June 19, 2025
Cranes are seen above a condo development and other housing projects under construction, in Coquitlam, B.C., on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says up to 4.8 million new homes will need to be built over the next decade to restore affordability levels last seen in 2019 based on projected demand.
The national housing agency released its latest supply gaps estimate report on Thursday, which said between 430,000 and 480,000 new housing units are needed per year across the ownership and rental markets by 2035.
That would represent around double the current pace of home construction in Canada.
A total of 90,760 housing starts have been recorded so far this year through May, and CMHC projects an average of 245,000 starts annually over the next 10 years under current conditions.Latest updates on investing here
CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth said doubling the pace of housing construction in Canada is achievable, “but not without a significantly larger and modernized workforce, more private investment, less regulation, fewer delays, and lower development costs.” He also called for more innovation in construction technology and growth in labour productivity.
“As we increase housing over time, house price growth will come down,” ab Iorwerth said on a call with media prior to the report’s release.
The report reassured that increasing housing supply is “unlikely to cause financial instability because these forces take time to produce reactions.” Ab Iorwerth added the projections were calculated on a 10-year timeline for that reason.
“We’re hoping that this will be a gradual transition,” he said.
“Housing supply will be increasing. This will start to slow the growth in house prices. Canadians will then be a little bit less keen to bid aggressively on housing ... and they’ll diversify their savings into other money markets or the stock exchange or whatever. And so the pressure will be taken out of house prices.”
In 2023, the agency estimated Canada would need to build an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030, on top of 2.3 million that were already projected to be built by that year, to reach affordability levels seen in 2004.
In its latest report, CMHC said that timeline “is no longer realistic,” especially after the post-pandemic price surge seen across the housing market.
Ab Iorwerth said Canada has faced a “shock” to housing affordability since 2019.
“When we were looking at the data, we saw that there’s been a lot of loss of affordability since 2019,” he said.
“We’ve seen these very fundamental changes in the housing system since 2019. It’s what the pandemic led to, these structural changes that we’re seeing in the housing system ... and that’s why we’ve decided to look at 2019 as this aspiration to really try and address this challenge that most Canadians are now feeling.”
The agency defines affordability as the amount of income that goes toward housing. In general, it aims to return to levels of affordability at which adjusted house prices are no higher than 30 per cent of average gross household income.
But that ratio is projected to reach 52.7 per cent by 2035 in a “business-as-usual” scenario, up from 40.3 per cent in 2019. Doubling projected housing starts over the next decade would bring the figure down to 41.1 per cent of income being allocated for homebuying nationally, according to the agency.
During the federal election campaign, the Liberals promised to double the rate of residential construction over the next decade to reach 500,000 homes per year.
The plan emphasized scaling up prefabricated housing construction. It said a new entity called Build Canada Homes would provide $25 billion in debt financing and $1 billion in equity financing to prefabricated homebuilders to reduce construction times by up to 50 per cent.
Returning to 2019 affordability levels in the next decade would lead to house prices being roughly one-quarter lower than where they would otherwise be in 2035, the CMHC’s report added. Average rents would also be about five per cent lower.Latest updates on commodities here
The report included regional breakdowns, which show Ontario, Nova Scotia and B.C. have the most significant housing supply gaps by province.
Montreal faces the largest gap of any major city, where home ownership costs have also risen faster than other regions in recent years, followed by Ottawa, where CMHC said new supply has not kept pace with increased housing demand.
In Toronto, despite increased rental construction in recent years, the region is lacking home ownership options that match local incomes, and CMHC estimated a 70 per cent increase in homebuilding over the next decade would help to improve affordability issues.
For Vancouver, it said an estimated 7,200 additional homes are needed annually above the “business-as-usual” scenario, an increase of 29 per cent.
It estimated Calgary, which has seen record levels of home construction for three straight years, will need 45 per cent more new homes annually. Meanwhile, no additional supply is required beyond what is currently projected in Edmonton, as sufficient market housing is expected to be built in the region to maintain affordability by 2035.
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Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says up to 4.8 million new homes will need to be built over the next decade to restore affordability levels last seen in 2019 based on projected demand.
The national housing agency released its latest supply gaps estimate report on Thursday, which said between 430,000 and 480,000 new housing units are needed per year across the ownership and rental markets by 2035.
That would represent around double the current pace of home construction in Canada.
A total of 90,760 housing starts have been recorded so far this year through May, and CMHC projects an average of 245,000 starts annually over the next 10 years under current conditions.Latest updates on investing here
CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth said doubling the pace of housing construction in Canada is achievable, “but not without a significantly larger and modernized workforce, more private investment, less regulation, fewer delays, and lower development costs.” He also called for more innovation in construction technology and growth in labour productivity.
“As we increase housing over time, house price growth will come down,” ab Iorwerth said on a call with media prior to the report’s release.
The report reassured that increasing housing supply is “unlikely to cause financial instability because these forces take time to produce reactions.” Ab Iorwerth added the projections were calculated on a 10-year timeline for that reason.
“We’re hoping that this will be a gradual transition,” he said.
“Housing supply will be increasing. This will start to slow the growth in house prices. Canadians will then be a little bit less keen to bid aggressively on housing ... and they’ll diversify their savings into other money markets or the stock exchange or whatever. And so the pressure will be taken out of house prices.”
In 2023, the agency estimated Canada would need to build an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030, on top of 2.3 million that were already projected to be built by that year, to reach affordability levels seen in 2004.
In its latest report, CMHC said that timeline “is no longer realistic,” especially after the post-pandemic price surge seen across the housing market.
Ab Iorwerth said Canada has faced a “shock” to housing affordability since 2019.
“When we were looking at the data, we saw that there’s been a lot of loss of affordability since 2019,” he said.
“We’ve seen these very fundamental changes in the housing system since 2019. It’s what the pandemic led to, these structural changes that we’re seeing in the housing system ... and that’s why we’ve decided to look at 2019 as this aspiration to really try and address this challenge that most Canadians are now feeling.”
The agency defines affordability as the amount of income that goes toward housing. In general, it aims to return to levels of affordability at which adjusted house prices are no higher than 30 per cent of average gross household income.
But that ratio is projected to reach 52.7 per cent by 2035 in a “business-as-usual” scenario, up from 40.3 per cent in 2019. Doubling projected housing starts over the next decade would bring the figure down to 41.1 per cent of income being allocated for homebuying nationally, according to the agency.
During the federal election campaign, the Liberals promised to double the rate of residential construction over the next decade to reach 500,000 homes per year.
The plan emphasized scaling up prefabricated housing construction. It said a new entity called Build Canada Homes would provide $25 billion in debt financing and $1 billion in equity financing to prefabricated homebuilders to reduce construction times by up to 50 per cent.
Returning to 2019 affordability levels in the next decade would lead to house prices being roughly one-quarter lower than where they would otherwise be in 2035, the CMHC’s report added. Average rents would also be about five per cent lower.Latest updates on commodities here
The report included regional breakdowns, which show Ontario, Nova Scotia and B.C. have the most significant housing supply gaps by province.
Montreal faces the largest gap of any major city, where home ownership costs have also risen faster than other regions in recent years, followed by Ottawa, where CMHC said new supply has not kept pace with increased housing demand.
In Toronto, despite increased rental construction in recent years, the region is lacking home ownership options that match local incomes, and CMHC estimated a 70 per cent increase in homebuilding over the next decade would help to improve affordability issues.
For Vancouver, it said an estimated 7,200 additional homes are needed annually above the “business-as-usual” scenario, an increase of 29 per cent.
It estimated Calgary, which has seen record levels of home construction for three straight years, will need 45 per cent more new homes annually. Meanwhile, no additional supply is required beyond what is currently projected in Edmonton, as sufficient market housing is expected to be built in the region to maintain affordability by 2035.
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Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.
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