Canada's rental crisis: Why we’re losing affordable housing - The Fifth Estate

Nearly one in three Canadians rents their home. Rental prices are skyrocketing, leading to the same kinds of bidding wars and disappointments that home buyers are facing. The Fifth Estate examines what’s driving rental prices up and some people out of their homes, including the growing trend of large investment companies buying up rental properties across the country.

#Rent #HousingCrisis #CBCFifthEstate

producer/director
SAMAN MALIK

written by
SHAINA LUCK
SAMAN MALIK

associate producers
IVAN ANGELOVSKI
MATTHEW PIERCE

editing
AILEEN MCBRIDE

principal cinematography
ANDY HINCENBERGS
JOHN BADCOCK csc
JOE FIORINO
JONATHAN CASTELL

additional cinematography
ROBERT SHORT
STEVE LAWRENCE
TRAVIS BURKE

archival material
CP IMAGES
GETTY IMAGES
REUTERS
SHUTTERSTOCK

special thanks
ALEX BALCH
EMILY POWER
PHILIP ZIGMAN

graphic designers
TIM KINDRACHUK
FROILAN UNTALASCO

graphic director
JEFF GOLDHAR

visual research
LESLIE MORRISON

media management
MATT GUERIN

post audio
ROBERTO CAPRETTA

colourist
SCOTT McINTYRE

rollout producer
ROXANNA WOLOSHYN

social media producer
AVNEET DHILLON

theme music
STEVE D'ANGELO

project manager
VICTOR KERR

associate director
NANCI KING

packaging editor
NANCY DIMENNA

resource coordinators
CHAHAT DESAI
JORDAN ABRAHAM

coordinating associate director
RHONDA KIRKPATRICK

senior producers
ALLYA DAVIDSON
EMMANUEL MARCHAND

executive producer
DIANA SWAIN

original broadcast
MARCH 10, 2022

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About The Fifth Estate: For four decades The Fifth Estate has been Canada's premier investigative documentary program. Hosts Bob McKeown, Gillian Findlay and Mark Kelley continue a tradition of provocative and fearless journalism. The Fifth Estate brings in-depth investigations that matter to Canadians — delivering a dazzling parade of political leaders, controversial characters and ordinary people whose lives were touched by triumph or tragedy.

[doylejodi]

When selling his house; (Windsor Ontario), my spouse had numerous offers and it came down to two. When he saw that one was a Toronto buyer and offering more than the other buyer, (the other was a mother with two kids), we talked about it and he chose NOT to take the Toronto buyer. Reason? We were aware that our housing market was being devoured by those who were coming in to buy up as much property as possible, rent out the property for very unreasonable amounts and starve our own people out. We weren’t willing to contribute to that. Accepting less money was worth it. (And no, we aren’t well off.)

[lim-limdunn]

My husband & I accepted a lower offer from a nicer & more deserving home buyer when we sold our last house, which upset the real estate agent since she was only looking at her commission. She couldn't grasp the concept that certain satisfaction in life (eg. having the privilege to help someone nice & deserving) is priceless.

[PWingert]

A decisive point: If you are spending 60% of your income on rent and housing expenses you not spending on the rest of the economy. Restaurants, retail, Entertainment, sports All of these and their subsequent supply chains will also suffer. Exorbitant rents will lead us into a deep deep recession that will take a decade to recover from.

[kennguyen]

It's great to see there are many Canadians who think about other Canadians' lives rather than money. Huge respect!

[rileyferrier]

The fact I work full time in a law firm and I can’t afford to move out. It makes me sick. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do to be independent and I can’t be. It makes me sick to my stomach. I don’t know how I will be able to live like this.

[artstar]

We’ve forgotten our power as people. There are tens of thousands of us who are becoming victim to this system and clearly the government is not going to fix this anytime soon. We need to start thinking where we have the power to influence change. We can put pressure on real estate developers by making our voices heard to them, leaving negative reviews and protesting. It’s time to start making things uncomfortable for those taking advantage.

[HumanPeace]

No property, houses nor apartments should be foreign owned and rent control in every province

[rhondalynnkorolakofficial]

As a Canadian living in Melbourne Australia, I was astounded at how expensive housing is over her when I immigrated here 20 years ago. According to Demographa, Australia is the only country in the world where 76% of the population is living in housing deemed severely unaffordable (I.e. value more than 6x earnings). The median house price is $1m and a small family cannot find a house to rent under $2500 per month. It’s insane. There has to be solutions to this. Canadian and Australian governments should be working and brainstorming together. Housing is a human right, not a nice to have.

[communitygardener]

We need to band together to pass fierce laws to protect family housing from shell companies, private equity firms, and all other money launderers.

[CrystalRicotta]

People are held back from living full lives because of rent.

[charlkriek]

Sweden has a law in place that you are required to live in the property you own. Strong rent control for existing & new tenants.

[jmb]

I rent my basement unit for about 20% less, because its just absolutely ridiculous to expect people to pay 2k+ a month for a one bedroom apartment.. its obscene

[Soosan]

Why is no one mentioning the fact that we are bringing in hundreds of thousands of people every year without building homes for them? It's as simple as supply and demand. The more demand, the higher the prices go. I am a land lord and even I don't like seeing rents this high. It is really out of balance.

[zakiyahamahad]

Governments have been allowing overseas investors to by property in the US and Canada for decades. I saw this becoming a problem watching shows on HGTV in the early 90's when flipping houses came in vogue. It took a major housing bubble to burst then and it will take another one (hopefully sooner than later) for things to be affordable again. Governments will never care about renters or homeowners because the corporations owning these properties put money in the pockets of those making the laws.

[jackbills]

I sold my home 2021 and I've been dollar cost averaging all year long and I've almost maxed out my reserve, so I'm basically waiting for stocks to fully recover so I can break even, but on the other hand, I've been coming by articles on people who are puIIing off recurring proflts of over $150K wlthln just weeks of trades, what am i doing wrong?

[Xr.]

“It feels like we are being lead to slaughter” ABSOLUTELY THIS. I’m permanently disabled and cannot afford the “low income” options. The system is greatly expanding the wealth gap and allowing more of us to fall through the gap.

[williamkelley]

My family of 4 lives on a lower but moderate wage. We managed to buy our house before the price hikes and our mortgage is less than 1/4 our income. My kids will likely never own their own home other than the family home. Life is expensive, we still struggle but I make darn sure our mortgage is never late and never missed. We do not touch our equity in any way. Life is getting ridiculously expensive when you make less than $50K a year.

[polarisjustdothework]

Yo dude, you have a point about the private sector not being responsible for solving social ills, but to add to them is absolutely shameful…

[VP-nzok]

It’s greed, landlords can only raise the rent with restrictions.
I was a land lord for over 30 years, i rented a basement apt, I kept my rent all inclusive and very careful to choose a great tenant,
I’m retired now, sold my home with the basement apt and will never rent again because good renters are few and far between these days

[susancarden]

This is not just happening in Canada. Here in Australia 🇦🇺, we are also fighting homelessness due to lack of affordable housing. Sadly many low rentals are sitting vacant for months, which l cannot understand why this is happening.