Major Canadian rental markets across the country are cooling, but that doesn’t mean that affordability has improved. In fact, renters are increasingly turning to roommate arrangements, new data from Rentals.ca and Urbanation shows (and let’s be real, people very rarely choose to bunk up if not out of sheer necessity).
Taking into account four major Canadian provinces — British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec — the data, released Wednesday, reveals that listings for shared accommodations have shot up a few hairs shy of 50% over the past year (48.7%, to be exact).
“Vancouver and Toronto, two of Canada's most expensive metropolitan areas, have experienced a notable increase in condo units where owners are subletting spare bedrooms,” Wednesday’s report also said. “Additionally, condo investors in these cities are listing individual bedrooms within larger units, thereby offering lower asking rents to attract prospective tenants.”
“Suburban communities across the country have experienced a growing number of basement units being offered for rent,” the report went on to say. “In Brampton, this phenomenon was characterized by the subdivision of basement units into smaller studio apartments. Within the 905 region of the GTA and outlying suburban communities of Greater Vancouver, there has been an increase in single-family homeowners renting out individual bedrooms within occupied homes, likely as a means to offset rising mortgage payments.”
In addition, the data shows that average asking rents across those four provinces surged 6.9% year over year to an average of $1,009 in September. Average rent for roommate accommodations surpassed the $1,000-mark recently, mind you, which points to the increasingly strong demand for that type of accommodation.
Breaking down the data a little: Rentals.ca and Urbanation report that roommate rents rose the most in Alberta over the past year, with a 5.6% jump to an average of $905 recorded. Still, rents for shared accommodations swung the highest in BC and Ontario, where the average rates came in at $1,210 and $1,102, respectively, last month.
In spite of those headline figures in Ontario and BC, major declines in rents for roommate accommodations were down in both Vancouver (-6.5% to $1,487) and Toronto (-5.7% to $1,233). Meanwhile, Edmonton saw the steepest rent growth for shared accommodations (up 8.8% annually to $790).
Rentals.ca and Urbanation began releasing data on roommate accommodations just last summer, with the first stats on the matter coming out in July 2023.
