A good way to grasp how much landlords have increased Hamilton rents recently is provided by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ “rental wage.” It’s the hourly wage you’d need to pay rent if you could find a 40-hour week, 52 weeks a year, and spending no more than 30 per cent of one’s income on housing—that is, without sacrificing other basic needs. The latest report used fall of 2023 average rents and minimum wages and figures for Hamilton are for the Census Metropolitan Area that includes Burlington and Grimsby.
- The Hamilton CMA’s rental wage in 2023 was $32.71 an hour, up more than 43 per cent since 2019. That’s an annual income of more than $68,000.
- The figure for a one bedroom was $26.29 an hour.
- No neighbourhood in Hamilton was affordable for minimum wage earners. Even two minimum wage earners could only just afford the average two bedroom unit—and often a mother with children needs a two-bedroom even though she has just one income.
- It would take 103 hours a week at minimum wage to afford the average two-bedroom. (That’s almost 15 hours, every day of the week, for one person, or 2½ people working 40 hours each at minimum wage,)
What’s going on? Even with rent control in Ontario, landlords can raise rents on vacated units by any amount. Units brought onto the market since November 2018 don’t have rent controls. And landlords can apply for rent increases above the annual guideline increase, which is increasingly common and the large majority of applications are approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Learn more here https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/out-control-rents