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Economic Viewpoint

Priced Out of the Canadian Dream: The Rise of the Permanent Renter

April 30, 2026
Kari Norman
Senior Economist

Highlights

  • Toronto and Vancouver increasingly resemble global cities, with housing affordability and homeownership rates that diverge sharply from national norms.
  • Restoring broad-based homeownership in these cities could now appear infeasible given the scale of income, price or interest rate adjustments that would be required to make these markets affordable again.
  • Income polarization in global cities weakens access to ownership, pushing long-term renting beyond lower income households and into the professional middle class.
  • Rental markets in Toronto and Vancouver are poorly matched to family needs, with unusually high rates of unsuitable housing driven by a shortage of family-sized units.
  • As long-term renting becomes structural, housing tenure—that is, whether households rent or own—plays a growing role in shaping wealth outcomes and raises questions about policy frameworks built to treat ownership preferentially.
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