Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Light
Let me suggest to you your interpretation doesn't work in some cities.
Let's take Toronto.
If you were earning minimum wage, full-time, as a single person, you would be earning $14 per hour.
This works out to about $28,000 CAD gross per year.
If we assume someone can afford up to 40% of their income on housing, that would mean such an earner should be able to find a place in Toronto for $933 per month.
Good luck w/that.
No matter how far your willing to move out, or how modest your standards are, there are virtually no apartments that price point.
Let's add here, that most guidelines on affordability would use a number below 40%, and if we used 30%, you would need to find an apartment at $700 per month.
There is no such apartment in Toronto or its suburbs.
I personally know someone who was renting a basement suite in a nice area of Toronto, and he got booted so the landlord could do a gut job and get more $$.
He is/was making decently above the minimum and paying more in rent than I noted above, yet he found it an incredible struggle to find anything in his budget.
A professional TV reporter in Toronto, making a good living ended up couch surfing and doing a story on it, because the landlord of the condo she rented jacked the rent by almost 1k on renewal.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...rfer-1.3985771
There are markets where supply and demand are so out of whack that losing an apartment is dangerous.
(vacancy in Toronto is under 1%) |
You're out too lunch. I've been part of this demographic and have lived in basement apartments to a high of $900 in the desirable downtown west area of Toronto. Did far too much of my money go to rent ? Yes, but living central let me work two jobs which made things fine. If you're low income you just have to give more hours to getting income versus others. You can't expect to work part time and live in Toronto. Everyone is working. Unless you have a disability you have no excuses. Either work harder or smarter or go move to Guelph where you can find an apartment for $500 and work part time.
You can find apartments all over that are affordable, younger can't expect anything perfect as it will either be ramshackle and in a great location or decent and far away in Scarborough.
Also, tenancy protections are rock solid in Ontario. Your friend does not know the rules because it is very difficult to boot out a Tennant in Ontario. A Tennant can refuse to leave and can be put in a position to negotiate a break in the lease. If you truly like a place them there has to be proactive action to put forward a renew of lease.
The stories of people getting rent jacked up were due to living in condos where your landlord is not experienced and is beholden to thier own tight carrying costs. No experienced landlord operates in such a way to drastically raise rents which is solely just a tactic to get the unit free.
The new rent controls in Ontario have made it less affordable for me. I have no issue with rich people over paying to rent condos (some people pay $1500 to rent a room which is thier own stupidity, Toronto isn't NYC or DC). It was good to see them over pay while the rest of the housing stock remains modest in rent. Now that is gone each landlord is jacking it up beyond what is reasonable when they get a vacancy. Nobody wants to point out that media rents have gone UP since rent controls were implemented on all units. So that is what people get for being ignorant to the market and how it operates. Everyone is paying more now due to bonehead policies.