Landlords account for a growing proportion of owners in BC, ON

Landlord ownership is steadily increasing in BC and Ontario, according to Statistics Canada.

The agency reported that as of 2018, the number of multiple-property owners in BC was over 268,600. Vancouver accounted for 53.6% (143,910 owners) of this demographic.

In Ontario, there were 835,175 of these kinds of owners last year, with around 43% (359,475 owners) in Toronto alone.

The two provinces, which host the two hottest residential real estate markets nationwide, have an abundance of housing investors. Taking advantage of these cities’ desirability, many of these owners have chosen to rent out these properties.

“The number of small landlords shouldn’t surprise many. Canada’s addiction to cheap financing makes condo development more favourable,” Better Dwelling stated in its analysis of the StatsCan data.

The implications on future supply cannot be understated. In recent years, new developments have tended towards high-end offerings that solely serve the needs of wealthy domestic and foreign investors.

Realosophy Realty president John Pasalis has argued that the growing prevalence of investment-use condos is a major factor in sky-high housing prices, further adding fire to the market’s long-running home affordability crisis.

“Five years down the road, do we really need 50,000 micro-condominiums that are renting for $2,000 a month?” Pasalis stated earlier this year, as quoted by The Guardian. “I think this is the risk when your entire new housing supply is driven by what investors want, rather than what end users want.”