Apartments are 81 percent of housing construction as more Canadians live with parents and average renter gets older

TikTok and Instagram videos of Gen Z and Millennials documenting out-of-control cost of living and skyrocketing rent costs are ubiquitous on social media, amassing millions of likes and engagement in the past few years. The viral trend of posting the exorbitant cost of renting or housing prices, as well as the growing trend of young Canadians leaving the country, aren’t subsiding any time soon, as new numbers indicate the housing shortage is projected to continue into the next decade. The latest preliminary data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) show that in the third quarter of 2025, out of 393,154 housing units under construction in Canada, the lion’s share of 318,863 units are apartments. That’s 81.1 percent of all housing currently under construction falling under apartments, up 5.2 percent from the proportion being built in the fourth quarter of 2022, when CMHC last tracked this data. “It’s more policy-driven than market-driven. The federal government has put in place a number of programs over the last decade to accelerate rental construction, [including] eliminating the GST on purpose-built rental, instituting an accelerated capital cost allowance provision for newly built rental construction,” Missing Middle Initiative founder and Hub contributor Mike Moffat said. Out of all the apartments currently under construction, approximately 77 percent are rentals (a substantial portion of condos designated as apartments are lived in by their owners). CMHC defines an apartment as a dwelling unit located in a building where units are typically stacked one above another and accessed via common corridors, entrances, elevators, or stairwells. Moffatt believes all three levels of Canadian government (federal, provincial, and municipal) hold some culpability for the current state of the housing construction industry, although Ottawa, which is providing low-interest loans for apartment building construction, has led the way in incentivizing developers to prioritize rental buildings. Meanwhile, Moffatt and other housing experts point to rising construction labour and material costs, high taxes, development charges, and land use policies which have made it very difficult and unlucrative for developers to build ground-oriented homes like town homes and single detached. The Hub previously reported that 2025 homeowner housing starts are on track to hit a 30-year low. Meanwhile, rental units have already surpassed last year’s previous historic high, and are projected to reach nearly 106,000 rental unit starts this year. However, the record number of rental units being built doesn’t make up for the decline in homeowner starts (homes being built to sell directly to homebuyers) in fulfilling the overall growing demand for housing. Despite the increased demand for new homeowner housing coming from Canadians and new immigrants—the inventory of Canadian housing under construction reveals a shortage. The changing face of the Canadian renter As the housing construction industry shifts to predominantly building rentals, the number of people now renting their residences has grown to over a third of all Canadians. Meanwhile, renters are getting older as a whole as the housing affordability crisis persists throughout much of Canada. The median age of Canadian renters has climbed to 32 years old (and an average age of 35) in 2025, according to new research released by Single Key. “Renting is no longer a short-term stage of life. The median renter is now between 31 and 33 years old, and about 12 percent of households have children,” the Single Key report concluded. “This signals that many renters are settling into long-term rental housing rather than transitioning to ownership.” Moffatt believes that as average rents across the country remain high, the average age of renters will likely get older. Young Canadians in their 20s are now often delaying renting or owning, instead staying in their parents’ homes. “I’m not sure we’re necessarily going to see an increase in young people renting,” Moffatt told The Hub. “I think more young people will stay at home because they can’t afford to rent, let alone buy.” A Statistics Canada report from earlier this year showed this trend of young adults living at home already becoming commonplace at the start of the decade. In 2021, census data showed approximately 900,000 people lived with their extended family and did not contribute to housing expenses. Today, a record of nearly 40 percent of Canadians aged 20 to 34 still live with their parents, according to Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. In Toronto, the number climbs to 47 percent. The outlook for Canadian youth in achieving homeownership has become increasingly bleak. In October, Abacus Data and the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) conducted a national survey showing 87 percent of Canadians are concerned about the current state of housing in Canada. A year prior, Angus Reid found 40 percent of renters had given up on ever owning a home. In Toronto, things are even more pessimistic. A November poll conducted by CityNews shows 75 percent of Torontonians who don’t own a home believe they’ll never own one their entire life. The average rent price in Canada currently sits at $2,063, with B.C. and Ontario prices the highest at an average of $2,490 and $2,159, respectively. Although there was a slight dip of several percentage points in the average rent costs in Canada over the past few years in most major cities, rent and personal debt still consume an average of 40 percent of a Canadian renter’s income, with little leftover for other living expenses and a potential downpayment. The Carney government hasn’t shown a solution for the promise to double new homes Last Saturday, the federal government released the details for its Build Canada Homes new investment policy framework, which Moffatt has highlighted focuses on industrializing social and mixed-income housing on federal lands. But the housing expert said it won’t help the wider demand for housing, especially for family homes. On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released a report on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Build Canada Homes program, meant to be a major federal housing initiative to help the country double housing starts to 500,000 per year from the current seasonally adjusted rate of 268,907 total units. The PBO report notes Ottawa has earmarked spending just under $28 billion in the next five years, yet projects the program will only help build an additional 26,000 new homes over the same timeframe–a 2.5 percent increase in housing completions. In an exchange near the start of Question Period late Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Carney rejected Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre citing the report. “You don’t even read the PBO report where it [said] it will contribute to projects containing 86,868 units,” Carney shot back. However, the prime minister failed to mention that the PBO report also stated that the “causal contribution” of the Affordable Housing Fund would only amount to an estimated additional creation of 14,017 units over the five-year time period. Moffatt believes the Liberal government could play a major role in reinvigorating new builds of homeowner housing, including reducing taxes on building materials and providing a similar type of loan program for family housing developments. “[The federal government should] extend the GST rebate to all purchasers of primary residences,” Moffatt added as another way to help first-time homebuyers afford a home. “The Ford government has indicated that they would match that. And if that were to happen, that would knock 13 percent off the cost of a new home.”