IN THIS ISSUE

🔑 Building student housing unlocks affordability

👏 This edition of good news in housing

• Average rents hit 17-month low

• McMaster announces Housing Policy degree

• Sale creates Canada’s largest student housing entity

🙋 Get involved

🧩 More from Studenthaus

🗂 Rental resources

TOP STORY

🔑 Student housing is the key

Whether buying, renting, or just trying to move away from home, it’s no secret that young Canadians face headwinds in the housing market.

This issue is exacerbated by the shortfall of student housing on campuses. This fall, we learned from Desjardins and the Toronto Star that just 1 in 10 students were able to live in residence.

This means that 1.2 million students rent in the communities surrounding campuses, which increases competition for everyone.

Students face a unique set of challenges as renters. Without extensive credit history, rental references, or savings, they have become increasingly reliant on familial support to pay the bills.

Yet they have to live somewhere, meaning that every option surrounding post-secondary institutions becomes more competitive. Students and local residents are battling it out for the same units.

Why? Canada’s student housing supply (equating to 10.3% of total enrolment) lags significantly behind the United States (30%) and the United Kingdom (27%).

Most institutions are financially limited in the amount of on-campus housing they can build, relying on partnerships with private sector or government to cobble together what they can.

Financial barriers aren’t the only roadblocks to new student housing. Municipalities have taken a limiting zoning approach towards this sector, which has made it hard to deliver much-needed housing.

One issue at the centre of this is the lack of a clear definition of off-campus student housing. We know what traditional on-campus student housing looks like — it can be clearly defined by its location and footprint.

Off-campus, it’s more challenging. Realistically, students live in a diverse set of accommodations, typically near campus, but further research is needed to put together a clear definition. We’re working on this.

If we know this is an issue, how do we move forward and why is it one way to fix our housing crisis?

We know that the lack of housing supply is one of the main reasons for the lack of housing affordability. Right now, renters don’t have options.

Building student housing (both on- and off-campus) will do three things.

1. Makes it easier for students to find housing — more options means less students have to compete against residents with more established credit or housing references.

2. Alleviates pressure on the rest of the market — with more student housing, students will free up units that can be rented by other residents.

3. Deliver long-term affordability by making more units available and addressing the lack of options in the student and general housing markets.

How do we make this happen?

We need policy to encourage more purpose-built student housing, both on- and off-campuses. It’s not enough to rely solely on post-secondary institutions, who are facing historic financial challenges right now. Just like in the rest of the housing crisis, we need cooperation between the public and private sector to make progress.

Policies should be delivered by all levels of government and could take many forms:

• Zoning reform focused on defining off-campus student housing

• Funding such as rent subsidies, tax cuts, or low cost loans to builders

By building more student housing, we deliver specialized supply that simultaneously relives housing pressure on students and on the rest of the market. It is important to pair this strategy with other kinds of housing, to present a holistic approach that leads to long-term affordability.

It’s all about creating options that allow renters to self-select into housing that works best for them.

Right now, some students are choosing where they go to school based on housing. Decisions about education should be made based on program quality and experience, not an external factor like housing.

If we don’t prioritize student housing, young Canadians will be fighting the same battles in the rental market in the future as they are today.

👏 Good news in housing

Average rents hit 17-month low

December 2024 rents showed a year-over-year decline by 3.2%. In December 2023 and December 2022, the same metric was up 8.6% and 12.1% year-over-year, respectively. Keep reading…

McMaster announces Housing Policy degree

The university’s Master of Public Policy will launch the first iteration of a specialization in Housing Policy this May. McMaster has been praised for targeting a new program towards tackling Canada’s biggest problem. Keep reading…

$1.7bn transaction creates Canada’s largest student housing entity

This acquisition signals strong institutional backing and belief in a much-needed form of housing. With the investment, the entity has more than $3.5bn in its development pipeline, which could bring thousands of student homes to market in the coming years. Keep reading…

🙋 Get involved

That’s right. In 2025, we’re committing to bringing young voices to the forefront of the conversation on new housing projects and policies.

We need your help.

First up is a social media campaign about the challenges that young Canadians face in the housing market. If you live in Toronto, Vancouver, or Victoria, we would love to interview you.

Look out for videos on our Instagram (@studenthaushq) in the next few months.

🧩 More from Studenthaus

🗂 Rental resources

Whether it’s your first time living on your own or you’ve been renting for years, this is the time of year that lots of young people are considering their future housing plans.

Is your landlord illegally entering your unit, trying to change your agreement without your consent, or unreasonably preventing you from having overnight guests?

If so, and you can’t quite figure out how to word a message to your landlord, check out the list of template letters from BC’s Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre to help you out.

There’s even a template roommate agreement.

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