No End in Sight: Rent in GTA Went Up By More Than 10% From Last Year
Housing issue in Canada seems to be an endless story, Toronto’s one-bedroom apartment rent increased by more than 10% from the previous year, while Brampton saw a nearly 30% increase.
Students looking to move into a new apartment in Toronto for the academic year might have been surprised to learn that the city’s rental prices have increased by more than 10% since last year.
According to a recent survey from rentals.ca, the city’s one-bedroom apartment’s average monthly rent increased to $2,620 in August, up 10.5 percent from August 2022. At $3,413 per month, the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment has increased 7.1% from one year ago.
READ MORE: City of Hamilton to Increase 14.2 % Taxes Next Year
According to year-end data from Urbanation and Rentals.ca, Canadians faced an average annual rent increase of 10.9 percent in 2022, with another five percent increase predicted for 2023. Well, the prediction came to be worse!
Out of the 35 cities examined in 2022, Vancouver had the highest monthly rent for December, with average rents of $2,596 for one-bedroom units and $3,562 for two bedrooms, respectively, with year-over-year increases of 16.8% and 17.9%.
With a year-over-year increase of 21.3% ($2,457) for a one-bedroom property and 18.1% ($3,215) for a two-bedroom unit, Toronto took second place as the city with the highest monthly rent.
According the data provided so far, 2023 could be worse than 2022.
Rent increase in the GTA tops the list
Rental increase in Toronto at about 10% for 2023 ins no joke but some other cities surrounding Toronto have rental increase close to 30%!
A one-bedroom apartment in Brampton now costs $2,274 per month, a staggering 29% increase from the previous year. A two-bedroom apartment in Brampton currently costs $2,650 per month, up 25.7% from the previous period.
Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Mississauga is up 15.3 per cent to $2,379, while the cost of a two-bedroom apartment in the city has jumped 18.4 per cent to $2,872.
READ MORE: According the Prediction Canada Will Have Extreme Winter this Year
Is Ontario housing crises unrepairable?
Even though Ontario has limited rent increases in 2024 to 2.5% there are still loopholes for landlords to continue increasing rent well beyond the recommended limit.
Steve Clark, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, says the 2024 rent rise guideline is set at the same rate as for this year and points out that it is less than the 5.9 percent annual inflation rate.
Rental properties with initial occupancy after November 15, 2018, are exempt from the cap. For increases over 2.5%, landlords can also apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board.
During the pandemic in 2021, the government set the rent increase guideline at zero percent; for 2022, it was increased to 1.2 percent.
If the rent guideline was at zero percent for 2021 and 1.2 percent foe 2022, how comes that we have increases in rent in Brampton for instance close to 30%, not everyone started to rent after November 15, 2018?
Could it be that single apartments and houses are not strictly regulated by the government? How is government regulating roommate price increase?
Those looking for roommates are also raising their standards. The average monthly roommate asking rent in Ontario increased by $73 to $1,040 from the previous year. The average monthly cost for a roommate in Toronto is currently $1,302.
Two options come to mind here:
- rental increase is out of control and government has no solution to it
- rental increase is wanted
Homelessness and Tent Cities on the Rise
The housing and homelessness crises are affecting many Canadian cities. Tent cities for the homeless are now a depressingly familiar sight, whether in Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, or Toronto. Canada’s indisputable housing problem is one of the main contributors to the disaster that has resulted in widespread homelessness. The issue will worsen if we don’t start developing, with immigration targets expected to increase to over 1 Mio. by the end of 2023.
Every media outlet talks about Cities as not being able to deal with increased homelessness and not being able to sustain increased number of tent cities, yet very little is written about real struggles of homeless people who are forces to live in poverty and bad living conditions.
City of Hamilton just recently announced a tax increase for residents in the hight of 14.2% for 2024. In the statement by City Council, one of the reasons for tax increase are extra expenses of $33 million for the city’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis, which is meant to help the estimated 1,700 homeless people in the area.
But is that a good solution? Toss the money on top of the problem? Perhaps a better solution would be to create economy to integrate homeless and socially endangered class into contributing to the society instead to keep them where they are. This way perhaps working class and homeowners will not be punished with tax increase.
The situation with housing, rental market and homelessness in Ontario and for most of Canada is extremely frustrating, we still can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
