Tag Archives: Ontario

Unofficial Rentals, Part III

      No Comments on Unofficial Rentals, Part III

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 »

Supply & Demand (& Rents)

      No Comments on Supply & Demand (& Rents)

Over the last year or so I’ve come across articles discussing if new rentals entering a housing market suppress rents and cause them to flatten or decrease, in sort of a supply versus demand relationship. Some articles claim to have found that rents overall increase with supply growth while other articles claim to have found that rents decrease with supply… Read more »

Unofficial Rentals, Part II

      No Comments on Unofficial Rentals, Part II

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 »

Taxing Vacant Rental Homes

      No Comments on Taxing Vacant Rental Homes

The St Catharines Standard, my local newspaper, recently published an article (on August 16) reporting on a recent city council debate and vote about one councillor’s suggestion to apply a special tax on “vacant homes” in the city to encourage landlords to rent them out instead of letting them sit vacant, and to use the tax proceeds to support the… Read more »

Unofficial Rentals, Part I

      No Comments on Unofficial Rentals, Part I

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

      No Comments on Breaking Down the Housing Market

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 »

Introduction

      No Comments on Introduction

Welcome to ApartmentResearch.ca, a website devoted to researching and discussing rental apartments and rental housing in southern Ontario. Why rental housing? According to the 2016 Census, 30% of dwellings in Ontario are rented. That’s over 1.5 million apartments, condos, townhouses, duplexes, single family houses, basement apartments, rooms, and trailers. That’s a huge portion of Ontario’s housing supply and it’s worth… Read more »