Canadian

Rental Housing Index - Q & A

What is the Canadian Rental Housing Index?
The Canadian Rental Housing Index is a new interactive map developed using census data
provided by Statistics Canada.
The Index is the first of its kind, examining issues of income, affordability and overcrowding in
more than 800 cities and regions across all of Canadas provinces and territories.
The Canadian Rental Housing Index also examines rental affordability in all 338 federal ridings.
It provides housing planners, non-profit developers and local and regional governments with the
information they need to plan for the future.

What does the Rental Housing Index do?
It examines the state of rental housing across Canada by assessing the affordability and
suitability of rental housing stock. This is one of the first major studies looking at incomes of
renters across the entire country.
The RHI provides customized data on the number of people who rent, how much of their
income is going toward rent and how overcrowded their living conditions are.

Why are non-profit housing organizations looking at levels of market rental housing?
Nearly a third of Canadians - or more than four million households - rent, but most studies of
housing affordability are focused on home ownership.
With a policy focus on home ownership, we saw a gap in critical planning information that
needed to be filled.
When rents are so high in the private market it puts people at risk of homelessness.
Homelessness costs the Canadian economy over $7billion per year (Homeless Hub: The State of
Homelessness in Canada 2014). A good supply of rental housing will bring rents down.
The higher the rents are in the private market, the more pressure there is on the non-profit
housing sector.

What do you plan on doing with this Index?
The index will provide housing planners, non-profit developers and local and regional
governments across Canada with the information they need to plan for the future of affordable
housing.

How did you collect this data?
All data in the Index comes from a Statistics Canada custom data request based on the 2011
National Household Survey (2011 Census). All data is specific to renter households. We will
update the Index after every Census period.

Why did you include utilities in with the rent information?
Some households have utilities included in their rent and others dont. We couldnt separate
those households out, so this was the best way of comparing apples with apples.

It was also a way of equalizing all regions of the country, given that utility rates are higher in
different parts of Canada (e.g. the North).

RENT IN CANADA

How many renters are there in the country?
Currently, 30.4% of the households in Canada rent.
There are approximately 4 million renter households in Canada.
The highest percentage or renter households are in the territories with Nunavut (79%) and
Northwest Territories (47.4%) leading the pack.
Out of the provinces, Quebec (38.4%), BC (29.3%), Nova Scotia (28.5%) and Ontario (28.2%)
have the highest number of renter households.

AFFORDABILITY

What is affordable housing, how do you determine this?
According to Statistics Canada, a household paying 30% or more of its pre-tax income for
housing is considered to have affordability problems.
Households paying in excess of 50% of pre-tax income for housing are considered to be at a
crisis level of spending.

What effect does rental housing have in the country?
According to a KPMG study (KPMG Economic Impact Assessment Study), Rental housing
contributes $12.25 billion to Canadas GDP (2013) each year.
Many of Canadas economic goals resource development, highly trained professional sector,
skilled immigration all depend on rental housing at various points. Unaffordable levels of rent
could impact our ability to reach those goals.

What effect does a lack of affordable rental housing have in the country?
Unstable and unaffordable housing often leads to an array of socioeconomic issues including
significant costs to the health, and justice systems.
Without affordable rental housing, households cannot save for a down payment on a home,
putting home ownership further out of reach for many Canadians.

Where is there a need for more affordable housing?
The data shows that there is a need for more affordable housing across Canada, in both rural
and urban areas.
The provinces that show the greatest need are: BC, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and
Alberta.