Gta Faces Serious Rental Shortage In Next Decade

In addition to a housing shortage for potential owners in the Greater Toronto Area, renters face a serious shortfall of accommodations – and that situation is predicted to become worse over the next 10 years. In the summer, the Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario released an assessment of current rental market conditions prepared for the organization by the real estate consulting/research firm Urbanation (https://bit.ly/35cAK1g). It addresses supply and demand of rental apartments across Ontario.

There is some new purpose-built rental construction going on, but not nearly enough. Since 2019, demand has grown beyond what was projected, because of rising population and job creation, but also because increasing home and condominium prices further limit homeownership affordability. The result is fewer vacancies and rising rents. Taking into consideration the temporary effects of the pandemic, Ontario should have been building 24,500 new rental units annually between 2017 and 2021. That, of course, is not happening.

Along with the demand for purpose-built rental, there is also a strong demand for condominium ownership by investors. Condos are taking up some of the rental slack, but again, we need more of them. Condos remain an excellent investment in the long run – and it looks as though that will be the case for years to come.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.