Canadian renters are seeing an improvement after years of hikes, but it’s a bit of a lottery. A new Rentals.ca report shows the gap between asking rental prices and incomes has steadily improved since peaking in early 2023. However, Alberta is the only province considered affordable—defined as the median household spending 30% or less of their income on average rent. Affordability problems have moved east, with Nova Scotia renters facing the worst conditions in the country—even worse than BC and Ontario.
Alberta Is Canada’s Only Affordable Rental Market
Let’s start with the good news—the pressure on renters peaked in early 2023. All five of the provinces tracked by the firm have seen affordability improve since then, though they remain far from where they started in 2019. Unfortunately, it’s important to understand that improving affordability is not the same as affordable.
When it comes to affordability, Alberta is the only province considered affordable. The average asking rent is 23.4% of the median renter’s household income. More granular data shows residents in Calgary and Edmonton face slightly better affordability than the provincial level, coming in at roughly 23.2%, well below the threshold.
Nova Scotia Is Now Canada’s Least Affordable Rental Market
Source: Rentals.ca
Canada’s east coast is on the other end of the affordability equation, where residents now face the worst rental conditions in Canada. The worst burden is in Nova Scotia, where the average asking rent is 37% of the median renter’s income. That’s down from the recent peak of 46% in November 2022, but still has a long way to go.
In a distant second is Quebec, where the average rent is 32% of the median renter’s income. Montreal, formerly known as a hub of affordability, is slightly better at 30% of local median income. However, that rate makes it the second-worst of Canada’s Big Six cities when it comes to affordability, only surpassed by Vancouver. Rapid price growth and some of the weakest long-term income growth in Canada have wreaked havoc on these local markets.
Ontario & BC Rental Markets Improve, But It’s Mostly A Technicality
Historically expensive markets are finally seeing the rent-to-income gap narrow, after wages jumped. In October of 2025, average rents require 30.6% of a median renter’s income in BC and 30.5% in Ontario, bordering on the affordability line. At the municipal level, Vancouver’s rent burden fell to 32.3%, while Toronto slipped below the threshold to 29.8%. There’s a catch here the firm likely didn’t realize, and it’s why those median incomes improved dramatically relative to the average rents.
Source: Rentals.ca
Toronto, and Ontario in general, are seeing strong outflows of young adults and early career workers. BC is seeing a similar trend, albeit slightly less extreme. At the same time, the late-career workforce population approaching retirement in both regions has begun to climb sharply. As the median age climbs, it’s likely the compensation for experience climbs as well. This is the primary reason the rent-to-income ratio is improving despite the modest improvements in actual rental prices.
Rental prices haven’t budged much after a historic surge, but no news is okay news here. Stagnant rents have allowed incomes to narrow the gap, resulting in improvements on paper. Unfortunately, statistical victories don’t always translate into material relief for households. Whether facing the extreme lack of affordability in Nova Scotia, or the demographic-driven illusion of affordability in BC and Ontario, renters still face tough conditions. Alberta excluded, apparently.
The housing crisis has pretty much contaminated every part of the country, and Alberta isn’t necessarily affordable, it just looks affordable. Try buying car insurance there – it’s unaffordable, and will offset any savings on housing.
Governments at all levels, greedy politicians who have rental portfolios and real estate investments, greedy landlords, and developers are all at fault. The housing crisis will never be fixed, because the people who could fix it, profit from it. They’d rather people see people go homeless or go without food than relent on their greed.
Time for a revolution!
Steve you are my spirit-animal (also in Alberta, and 100% in agreement). Alberta is not actually affordable for lower income people/precariat (as I am). My most recent long-term rentals were 11yrs (2012-2023) + 8yrs before that, but since only 2023 have been rent-increased/flipped out twice already. I’ve taken my last 2 landlords to court and won both times but it doesn’t prevent being repeatedly displaced, huge expensive moves and untold hours wasted, and now I can’t even get a ‘good landlord reference’ despite 40yrs of being a good/responsible & reliable renter. It is brutal and I loathe every one of the parasites who enabled/encouraged all this to happen. May there be a reckoning!
Steve, the reason AB is ‘afforable’ is that there are a lot of very high wage earners in AB. This pulls up the median income dramatically. Where an engineer, trade or accountant in toronto, Vancouver makes 90k, in AB they make 130k+. Now there are still lots of people in AB who are poor, and since AB also has the highest home ownership and highest consumer debt, the rental market here is smaller and more volitile than in the east. Also the prices only recently increased in AB relative to the rest of Canada, with peaks in 2025, not 2023.
As for auto insurance, this is the result of a tort system out of control. The amount of money being spent on nonsense like litigation over minor accidents in ON\, as well as hail and flood claims are the problem. Moving to no fault might help, but perhaps the solution to manage these premiums is a govt insurer like in every other western province? Regardless, car insurance premium creep has been unchecked by the UCP, since premiums are regulated in AB. A good driver has gone from $1000 per year in 2018 to $3000 per year in 2026? This should be an election issue, since a family with 2 cars is now facing spending 9-10k per year on house and car insurance, which is ridiculous considering this is mainly to support regional claims issues and trial lawyers. Many people in AB have never had a claim, and are now paying 300% more than they did 8ys ago?
Don’t forget the size adjustment. “affordable” 30 years ago meant a 2 to 3 bedroom rental, now it’s a basically a worker dorm with private bath. My closet is bigger than some of these apartments they’re trying to young adults into paying for.
Alberta rents aren’t cheap, but the jobs here pay well and the economy is big enough that we don’t just focus on trying to speculate each other out of shelter.*
*Edmonton excluded
Debt/tax slaves to the elites. This system needs to burned the the ground.
Well we should have known this was going to happen. Trudeau, Freeland Carney all espoused this post nationalist nonsense. Its BNW/1984 in Canada, and the people in central Canada are OK with that apparently?