Private Rental Housing: The Canadian Experience

Abstract

Almost three persons in ten in Canada currently rent their accommodation in the private sector: whether in the conventional or non-conventional rental stock. Over the past half-century, there have also been major improvements in financing and in the liquidity of the rental stock—widely thought to be important in attracting investment in rental housing—and all levels of Canadian government have experimented with a broad range of housing subsidies and initiatives. In this paper, outcomes in private markets for rental housing are seen as a consequence of a shift in demand or supply that may itself reflect a policy initiative. This paper examines two markets: a market for rental housing stock (whose outcomes include property prices, new construction, renovation, demolitions, conversions and other alterations) and a market for rental accommodation (whose outcomes include rents, vacancy rates, usage and the assignment of households to dwellings). The paper reviews basic data on market outcomes in Canada since the Second World War. It then discusses important shifts in the demand for, and supply of, rental accommodation and describes major policy initiatives that may have affected these.