Canadian tenants faced another year of affordability challenges as rents crept up nationally and were particularly high in Vancouver and Toronto.
The findings from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s (CMHC) annual rental market report released Friday show the average rent for a two-bedroom home in the 37 areas the federal housing agency studied increased to $1,167 last year, a three per cent rise from $1,128 in 2020 and $1,080 in 2019.
Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist, attributed the rise in rent to a supply and demand imbalance, and said the increase was also affected by the different speeds of recovery cities have experienced in the latest stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area, he said, were facing the most severe affordability challenges because those cities held onto the highest average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment.
Vancouver rent increased 2.4 per cent to $1,824, while rent in the GTA rose 1.5 per cent to $1,666.
“When you look at lower income households the mismatch between affordable rentals and the number of households gets worse,” he said.
“Last year in Toronto and Vancouver, only 0.2 per cent of the rental universe was affordable for the bottom 20 per cent of earners.”
Canadians need to work more to afford rent
CMHC and Dugan found someone renting a two-bedroom purpose-built apartment in Vancouver would have to work 198 hours per month to keep monthly rent at 30 per cent of their gross income, the threshold of affordability.
In Toronto, it would take 178.3 hours per month, up 7.6 hours from last year.
“That person has to work more than full-time or needs a second tenant in the unit with them to make that rent affordable, if they’d like to get it down to 30 per cent of income,” said Dugan. “That’s an even bigger mismatch, when you get to that bottom 20 per cent [of earners], so that’s something that’s a concern to us.”
In some markets, where people flocked to find more space when their employers allowed remote work, the year-over-year increase in hours needed to work to keep monthly rent at 30 per cent of a gross income was even more dramatic than what Toronto experienced.
In Peterborough, Ont., where the average two-bedroom unit monthly rent was $1,316, it took 160.5 hours to achieve that feat last year, up 36.7 hours from 123.8 hours in 2020.
In Windsor, Ont., where the average two-bedroom rent rose by more than five per cent to hit $1,154, CMHC estimated it would take 137.8 hours, an 18.6-hour jump from 119.2 hours in 2020.
WATCH | How rent increases are affecting residents of Windsor, Ont.:
‘You have to give up your quality of life’: rent prices out of reach for many Windsorites
29 days ago
Duration 1:24
Aubrey Murray said he has had to sacrifice to find affordable rent. He currently lives in a converted building with several shared spaces. 1:24
This surge could persist if people continue to gravitate to suburban and rural markets, because it will take supply time to catch up, according to Dugan.
“I’m sure that the city planners in some of these smaller communities didn’t have a five-year plan that included a pandemic,” he said.
Montreal’s rental, vacancy rates key
At the other end of the spectrum, Montreal had the lowest rent levels with an average monthly rent of $932 and 105.8 hours needed to keep monthly rent at 30 per cent of someone’s gross income. Along with a look at rental affordability, CMHC also offered a window into vacancies.
The national vacancy rate sat at 3.1 per cent last year, compared with 3.2 per cent in 2020 and 2.2 per cent in 2019.
Rates declined in 21 of the 37 markets CMHC analyzed, including Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria and Halifax, but increased in three locations: the Greater Toronto Area, Winnipeg and Abbotsford-Mission, B.C.
In the remaining 13 areas, including Montreal, vacancy rates held steady.
Montreal’s rate was one of the key factors behind the stability of the overall national vacancy rate because the Quebec city’s rental market accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the national rental market.
Toronto holds about 15 per cent of the rentals in the country, while Vancouver has five per cent.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
