By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban
Canada’s housing crisis has occupied national and local headlines for more than a year, influenced policy and debate at every government level, and raised fingers towards immigration, student populations, inflation, pandemic, over-regulation and more.
While remedies are debated, one thing is not: The share of people renting their homes in Quebec is larger than ever before, and Montreal reigns with more than 63%, leading among Canada’s 50 biggest cities at almost twice the national average of 33%.
In fact, eight of Quebec’s 10 largest cities have a percentage of renters higher than 33%, and it’s not just young people — from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, renting has become widespread across all age groups according to a Point2Homes.com report based on 2021 Census data from Statistics Canada. In five Quebec cities — including Longueuil, Quebec City, and Trois-Rivières — more than 90% of residents under 24 are tenants, and three others have the highest percentages of seniors renting out of Canada’s major cities – about half of the population 65 and over. Lévis had Quebec’s biggest growth in renter share, from 30.7% to 34.1%. Terrebonne and Laval follow with similar increases. Despite Montreal’s smallest spike, it nevertheless tops the country’s list.
Leading this evolution are ongoing demographic shifts: immigration, aging population, and people relocating closer to employment hubs. But there are also practical reasons, like the financial benefits of renting in a high-priced housing market as well as preference for a maintenance-free lifestyle.
Canada has nearly one million more renter households since a decade ago, according to the Point2Homes.com report: “Whether it’s about having the flexibility to move whenever, pinching pennies or just freedom from fixing leaky faucets,” one thing’s for sure: Canada has reached unprecedented levels of renters — and Montreal is leading the charge. (Toronto has more renter households (551,290) but ranks fifth in percentage.) That same demand also leads to a significant portion of recently built stock becoming renter-occupied: More than 40% of dwellings built from 2016 to 2021 are being rented, the highest rate in decades.
Montreal is known for some of the lowest average rent prices among the country’s largest markets. “In fact, according to Numbeo, rents in the city centre (about $3,000) are significantly lower compared to average rents in other major downtowns like Toronto, Vancouver, and nearby Burnaby.” Over 54% of Vancouver households opt to rent in the city, where home prices go for nearly $1.3 million. Alongside Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, Sherbrooke is one of the three major cities where rent is less than $1,500, even in the city centre. “Meanwhile, given its vast student population attending Queen’s University, nearly 93% of Kingston’s under-24-year-olds rent, and true to its vocation as a Gen-Z-attractive city, Montreal displays an equally huge share of young tenants.”
Read more: https://www.point2homes.com/news/canada-real-estate/rentership-on-the-rise-montreal-canada-renter-capital.html n