Tag Archives: CMHC

Unit Mixes for New Rentals, Part III

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In the first post in this series I examined historical unit mix data to see what types of purpose-built rentals have been built in twenty of Ontario’s largest cities. The data shows that since 2000 developers have generally shifted to building more 2 bed units, while significantly reducing the number of studio and 3 bed units. In the second post… Read more »

Unit Mixes For New Rentals, Part II

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In the first post in this series I examined historical unit mix data to see what mix of purpose-built rental units have been built over the past few decades. My analysis found that since the year 2000 in twenty of Ontario’s largest cities developers have constructed far more 2 bed units than they did before 2000, while at the same… Read more »

Unit Mixes for New Rentals, Part I

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What unit mix should developers choose for new rental projects? In previous posts I’ve made the point that there is such a large gap between supply and demand for rentals in most cities in southern Ontario that almost any rentals that are constructed will be leased. That’s not what developers, investors, and lenders want to hear, however, so I think… Read more »

Unofficial Rentals, Part III

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In my two previous posts on the topic of non-purpose-built or unofficial rentals I showed that in the ten largest cities in southern Ontario the number of non-purpose-built rentals can be quite large, often thousands of dwellings, and I discussed the different types of non-purpose-built rentals and why it’s important they are included in market surveys. In my first post,… Read more »

Unofficial Rentals, Part II

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In my first post in this series I examined the size of the non-purpose-built or unofficial rental supply in Ontario’s ten largest cities. In this post I discuss the three main types of non-purpose-built rentals, comment on their importance, and explain why knowing all of this is important. The non-purpose-built rental supply can be separated into the following three categories:… Read more »

Unofficial Rentals, Part I

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In my first post on this website I explained how the housing market breaks down, identifying the categories of housing into which it can be separated. Readers should go back and read that post. In it I described the difference between purpose-built and non-purpose-built rentals, what I tend to refer casually as “official” and “unofficial” rentals—or de jure and de… Read more »

Breaking Down the Housing Market

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Before digging deeply into rental housing, I want to make sure readers understand how the housing supply breaks down. First, the Census (conducted by Statistics Canada every five years) counts the total number of “occupied private dwellings”, which are all dwellings of any kind being occupied by households. In the Census, one dwelling is occupied by one household, and dwellings… Read more »