The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says the rental vacancy rates dropped in several Ontario communities it surveyed.
Of those communities, Windsor, hit a record low of 1.8 per cent.
Rent prices in Canada grew at a record pace last year as the country saw the lowest vacancy rate since 2001 from 3.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent in 2022, according to the latest Rental Market Report released by CMHC.
The federal housing agency said the average rent for a two-bedroom purpose-built apartment grew 5.6 per cent to $1,258 compared with the previous 12-month period, which is a new annual high in data going back to 1990.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Tad Mangwengwende, Senior Analyst of Economics at CMHC, says
He says Canada is seeing a tight rental market, and affordability challenges.
"The Canada story, and there are many parallels to the Windsor story, is one of a tightening rental market, reflected in a decline in the vacancy rate. And, also, a market where we are seeing significant affordability challenges when we look at people's incomes, relative to what they can afford in terms of the available spaces."
He says Windsor saw a new challenge this year with rental properties.
"One of the new features in the Windsor story, this time around, is the increase in the rental bidding wars on rental apartments. Traditionally, this is something that you see in the major markets. But now, when you see that happening in Windsor, now we have not only a low vacancy rate, but even for those who have the low incomes, the competition for whatever is available to them is tightening."
He says rental rates for vacant units increase faster than lived-in units.
"The rate at which vacant units rents increase in terms of their costs for the rentals, they tend to increase faster than the rates for people who are already living in a particular apartment. So, 3.9 per cent is the headline number, but a compelling story is what is actually available to people who go into the market, the vacant units."
The share of rental units that were affordable to low-income renters was so low in areas including Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton, Sudbury, Kingston and Belleville that CMHC couldn't even report figures on the matter.