In only 3% of Canadian urban areas, two-bedroom apartments are available to people with minimal wages. However, things are a little better in the east of the country.
The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) studied incomes and rental prices in 795 districts of Canadian cities and found that people who get the minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment in only 9% of the country’s districts, and two-bedroom units are affordable only in 3% of locations.
According to Statistics Canada, the minimum wage in Canada varies from C$11 to C$15 per hour (the lowest is in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the highest is in Alberta).
The CCPA research states that to rent a two-bedroom apartment, you need to earn at least C$35 per hour in Vancouver and a minimum of C$34 in Toronto. The most affordable cities to rent are in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. But even there, the minimum wage may not be enough.
Hourly wage sufficient to rent a two-bedroom apartment (CAD):
- Vancouver: 35
- Toronto: 34
- Calgary: 28
- Ottawa: 26
- Barry: 26
- Edmonton: 25
- Oshawa: 24
- Kelowna: 24
- Kingston: 23
- Winnipeg: 23
- Hamilton: 23
- Regina: 23
- Halifax: 23
- Saskatoon: 22
- London: 21
- St. John’s: 18
- Quebec: 16
- Montreal: 16
- Moncton: 16
- Saint John: 15
- Sherbrooke: 12
- Saguenay: 12
- Trois-Rivières: 12
The rental search website PadMapper’s data shows that the cost of affordable apartments for rent continues to grow faster than income in the vast majority of Canadian cities.
Prices for one-bedroom apartments over the past year have risen by about 10% in Toronto and Vancouver, and by almost the same amount in Montreal — up to C$2,290 in Toronto, C$2,200 in Vancouver, and C$1,430 in Montreal on average.
Over the past three years, rents in Kitchener, Hamilton, and Montreal have grown by more than 40%. In most cities, prices rose faster than incomes, while rents were reduced only in a few cities of the Prairie Provinces.
The CCPA report says that the rise in rent is due to insufficient construction. In the 1970s and 80s, more than 100 thousand apartments were erected in Canada per year. Although the country’s population has grown over the past decades, the total number of affordable housing under construction today is about three quarters of the construction volume of the 1970–80s.