Ottawa has almost no private-market affordable housing: CMHC

A new indicator from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows there are close to zero private rental units that are affordable for the lowest income households in Ottawa.

CMHC looked at the share of rental market housing that meets a threshold of costing no more than 30 per cent of pre-tax income for households earning in the lowest 20 per cent.

In Ottawa, as in nine other Ontario cities, the indicator foundthere were so few units meeting those criteria that it could not even report a reliable figure.

Even Vancouver had more affordable units, with one per cent availability under that measure.

"What this first measure tells us is worrisome, to say the least," said the CMHC report.

The figures in Quebec cities were far better. Gatineau had eight per cent of units considered affordable for the poorest fifth of households, though recent figures show the city's rents have surged over the past four years.

The CMHC report looks only at private market rental properties with at least three rental units, not at social housing units.

Turnover units have much higher rents

In the same report, CMHC compared rents for units where new tenants had moved in during the past year to those with more longstanding occupants.

It found a gap of more than $300 per month between the two groups in Ottawa.

For new renters, the average rent for a two-bedroom unit was $1,831. For renters in place for more than 12 months, the average was $1,520.

The same trend was true in Gatineau, though the difference was only slightly more than $100.