Rents for available units in Hamilton last month were up again by double-digit percentages year over year, but prices were still better than several Ontario cities in terms of affordability.
Rentals.ca, an agency that tracks rental listings across Canada, says the city saw increases of 15.7 and 11.6 per cent in one- and two-bedroom suites respectively when comparing last month with May 2022 data.
As of June, a one-bedroom suite in the city was averaging about $1,877, while a two-bedroom was an estimated $2,310 per month.
That’s still cheaper than 13 other major Ontario municipalities Rentals.ca tracks with most above the $2,000 mark for just a single-bedroom dwelling.
Scarborough had the biggest increase, up some 27.1 per cent for a one-bedroom to $2,125 per month. Two-bedroom units there fared no better at $2,506, up 18 per cent a month.
Remax Escarpment realtor Rob Golfi suggests renters may have more difficulty in finding an entire home in the city since he’s seen a trend in splitting houses into two levels to capitalize on the hot rental market.
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The spike suggests sellers have been landlords in recent times, advertising homes that have a separation between main floors and basements.
And in many cases, sellers have existing renters already lined up for their prospective buyers.
“So now when the seller wants to sell a house, part of the remarks put in say ‘potential in-law for rental income in the basement,'” Golfi told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“And a lot of those are coming up on the MLS listings right now.”
Golfi says despite rental volume improving in the market through new developments endorsed by the city, most are still not subject to rent controls.
The province eliminated those on new, unoccupied rental units in late 2018.
“That was the only way the government could get developers to build apartment buildings,” Golfi explained. “The last time they really built an abundance of apartment buildings was in the ’70s and then rent control came in and developers said, ‘Well, forget that … we’re not interested anymore.'”
Urbanation, which tracks condo development across Canada, suggests the current rental crunch is connected with how much investment there is in rental stock.
The entity estimates the biggest market, Toronto, has only about 39 per cent of its apartment-style stock geared for rental.
About 59 per cent of units built in the last five years have been geared toward renters, which is good news for improving volume but will not necessarily equate to lower rents.
Burlington rents had lighter increases year over year than neighbouring Hamilton, but still had higher rents with a one-bedroom at $2,244 and a two-bedroom at $2,514 per month.
Oshawa, London, St. Catharines and Kingston were cheaper places to live than Hamilton.
Kingston is the most affordable with the average one-bedroom just over $1,660 a month. St.Catharines was the cheapest for a two-bedroom unit, just $1,956.
Rents continued to go up in all the major cities in Canada but at a slower pace over the past 17 months, 7.3 per cent for May.
The fastest rising rents were in Alberta, up an average of 13 per cent year over year for apartments and condos.
Ontario was second with annual rent growth at 12.4 per cent, but prices were 58 per cent higher than Alberta’s average rents.
Asking rents for 35 primary and secondary rental markets across Canada dropped month over month from a $2,000 average to just over $1,800 for a one-bedroom.
Two-bedroom units were flat nationwide, holding at $2,243 per month between April and May.
Zumper.com, which also analyzes hundreds of thousands of listings across the 23 largest cities in the country, says Hamilton slipped out of their top 10, month over month. Now at number 11, the price of a one-bedroom was up 13.8 per cent on average in the city, to about $1,730 a month, year over year.
Zumper says the average rent for a single bedroom in Vancouver hit an all-time high checking in at $2,700, up 20 per cent annually.
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