Renting This Week in Canada: More Swifties and Living in a Garden Shed

As Taylor Swift's highly anticipated Canadian concerts continue to drive short-term rental prices through the roof in Toronto and Vancouver, a 67-year-old senior in Midland, Ontario, has been forced to live in a garden shed because of mould in her rental, and allegations continue to fly that there's a rental-price fixing scheme afoot in Canada.  

As we head towards Remembrance Day, catch up on these hot rental trends and more with Renting in Canada This Week:

The Breach broke this story in early September, and now CBC News has made it mainstream. Is there a rental price-fixing scheme in Canada? 

According to a Statistics Canada survey, the youngest Canadian homeowners typically have a net worth at least 10 times that of renters in the same age cohort.  Hmmm, that doesn't seem fair, does it?

Taylor Swift will soon be on Canadian soil, and short-term rental prices continue to rise in Toronto and Vancouver. All hail the Swifties! 

Finding a place to rent is only part of the immigration journey for newcomers to Canada. Here's how Canada's excellent settlement agencies help make the transition successful. 

 

Richard Abboud of Forum Asset Management argues in the Globe and Mail that the shortage of student housing puts further pressure on the heated housing market and jeopardizes one of Canada’s few remaining competitive advantages: our highly educated workforce.

According to STOREYS, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has almost 40,000 units of condo supply in "limbo": unsold units in development, assignment listings, or resale listings on the MLS. That's a lot of potential rentals (and starter homes for newcomers!).

And as Matt Lundy of the Globe and Mail points out, this "infusion" of condo units in the GTA is pushing rents down. Here's why and how. 

 

What the??????? Derek Howard of Midland Today reports that Debbie Lloyd, 67, of Midland, Ontario, says she's living in a shed away from the toxic mould issue in her rental and cannot move elsewhere due to unaffordable rent costs. 

Did you know renting a room via homesharing is extremely popular with women under 30? And that most homeshare hosts are women as well? For newcomers to Canada and international students, homesharing can be a smart rental strategy. 

Did we screw up rental housing in Canada a hundred years ago? Read what Raphaël Fischler of the Université de Montréal says in The Conversation. 

Finally, please check out the latest version of our Monthly Housing Newsletter for Newcomers and International Students. 

Steve Tustin is the Content Editor for Rentals for Newcomers and a contributing editor for Prepare for Canada. He is also the former managing editor of Storeys.com and a former senior editor at the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

*No AI-generated content was used in the writing of this story, and all sources are cited and credited where possible.

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