2019 Ontario Rental Market Study: Revisiting the Supply Gap & Opportunities for Development

The rental housing supply gap in Ontario has quickly grown to a level that is twice as high as originally projected a few years ago. Factors such as outsized economic growth in the province, reduced homeownership rates, and much stronger than anticipated increases in the population pushed the demand for rental housing well above 40,000 units per year as the decade came to a close. Net migration to Ontario has been a particularly large contributor to the upward adjustment, having reached over 200,000 persons in each of the past two years — doubling the annual average recorded during the preceding five-year period.