Quebec's homeownership rates are the lowest in Canada

If you build it, they will rent.

The Statistics Canada report on housing found that more Canadians are renting rather than owning, especially in Quebec, as homeownership rates in the province dropped again while more and more apartment buildings are being constructed for renters.

HOMEOWNERSHIP IN QUEBEC LOWEST IN COUNTRY

While Quebec homeownership rates sustained the smallest drop in the past five years, from 61.2 per cent to 59.9 per cent, the province still has the lowest homeownership rates in Canada.

The national average is 66.5 per cent.

That said, with lower ownership rates come higher rental rates.

One place renters are increasing at a rapid rate is in Quebec City, and those renters are typically not moving into the historic buildings and basement suites in the city.

Instead, the provincial capital had the highest number of renters living in buildings constructed between 2016 and 2021 in the country at 61.3 per cent.

But it's not just in Quebec City -- large buildings made for renters are becoming more common across Canada.

"With the recent growth in apartments, dwellings built since 2016 are more likely to be occupied by renters compared with the older housing stock," the Stats Can report said. "Just over two in five dwellings built from 2016 to 2021 (40.4%) were occupied by renters in 2021, a higher proportion than any other era of housing stock, except for dwellings built in the 1960s post-war apartment boom."

In Montreal, over half (51.7 per cent) of the new dwellings built between 2016 and 2021 were condos, and one in seven households in Quebec (13.8 per cent) called a condo home in 2021, with most of those in Montreal (18.7 per cent) and Quebec City (15.5 per cent).

More than half of those living in condos are renters.

Low-income Quebecers were generally better housed than other low-income Canadians. 

That's in part due to Quebec's rent control policy, which caps rent increases. The province has fewer people in the "Core Housing Need" category, defined as those living in unsuitable, inadequate or unaffordable places, and those who can't afford alternative housing.

The national average for people living in the Core Housing Need catagory is 10.1. In Quebec, it's just six per cent, down three points from 2016.

PRICES RISING

It may come as no surprise that house prices are going up. 

In Quebec, the average expected value of homes rose by 29.8 per cent, which is below the national average of 39.6 per cent, and well below Ontario, which is at 59.4 per cent.

The residential property price index (RPPI) shows prices increased in Montreal by 14.6 per cent in 2021.

Households that spend 30 per cent or more of their income on housing costs are considered to be living in unaffordable housing. Unaffordable housing rates in Quebec dropped in Quebec from 21 percent in 2016 to 16.1 per cent in 2021.

Statistics Canada noted COVID-19-related government transfers helped many households push above affordability thresholds, as they helped with housing costs like rent, mortgages and utilities.

Montrealers, however, pay a premium to live in the city, where the average rent for a two-bedroom place downtown was two-thirds (69.9 per cent) higher compared to other city centres. Downtown renters, according to the agency, are more likely to pay more than 30 per cent of their income on shelter costs, whether they be owners or renters.