[URBAN NOTE] On the increasingly unaffordable nature of rent in Toronto

[rfmcdonald]

My attention was caught this morning by Abrey Jax's blogTO post entitled "Many Toronto renters spend half of pay cheques on rent". Oh, I empathize.

One of Toronto's clearest class divides can be visualized quite succinctly by reaction to a new report from TD Economics regarding the housing market in the city. Camp A is shocked to learn that, instead of following the handy "30%" rule of income-to-rent ratio, Toronto renters are donating an average of 50% of each pay cheque to their landlord's designer dog + Muskoka cottage lifestyle. Camp B, on the other hand, is saying "duh" and getting on with their seven day work week.

According to the report, the renters' statistic applies to non-one per cent (actually non 60%) of workers, while those in the upper bracket are bleeding cash at similar volumes to mortgages and other home owning fees that people like myself can't even begin to comprehend. The heart of the matter is that if you're only paying half your income on housing, the landlord hasn't left you without heat for weeks at a time, and you don't have bed bugs, congratulations, you're doing okay in Toronto. For now.

Right now, there are 101 comments at the site. (The Toronto Dominion report mentioned is here.)

CBC has more.

While about one quarter of the city’s new jobs created over the past ten years can be credited to the housing boom, certain dynamics have resulted in less affordability for a growing number of people and a drastic decrease in the diversity of housing options.

Construction of condo units has skyrocketed while other forms of housing has remained stagnant, presenting a potentially serious economic quagmire when the boom inevitably ends since condos are generally considered lower quality housing stock than, for example, semi-detached homes.

“A healthy economy should have a good degree of mobility and a good degree of housing choices,” said deputy chief economist and vice-president at TD Bank Derek Burleton in an interview with CBC’s Metro Morning on Monday.

“What we’ve seen in the past ten years is this affordability challenge has spread to the middle class and even to other, higher income levels,” says Burleton.

[. . .]

Among other recommendations that include easing regulations on landlords looking to rent property, Burleton said the GTA’s staggering lack of regional transit is exasperating the problems.

“Transit is key … Transit system helps to direct residents to where land costs might be a little bit cheaper, for example. It’s not so much about building along corridors as it is about building more transit corridors.”

I have no idea where I would find an affordable apartment in Toronto if I had to move. This all is a terribly upsetting economic dynamic for me.