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CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Housing unaffordability in Fredericton has 'worsened at a dramatic pace,' new report says
A new report is highlighting the growing disparity between income levels and housing costs in Fredericton, where the median home sale price has risen by 85 per cent in just five years. In 2019, a household earning $100,000 would have been able to afford 93 per cent of properties listed that year. Last year, that same household would have been able to afford just 29 per cent of property listings, according to Fredericton's latest housing needs assessment, conducted by consultants with Turner Drake and Partners Ltd. "That was a real stark statistic for me because we often hear that from our residents and particularly the younger demographic that's having a hard time accessing that market," said Coun. Jason Lejeune, member of the city's affordable housing committee. The analysis of affordability is even bleaker for households earning $60,000. In 2019 they'd have been able to afford 60 per cent of property listings, compared with just three per cent of property listings last year. Renting has also become more expensive, with households earning $40,000 only able to afford 16 per cent of leasing opportunities last year, down from 47 per cent in 2019. The housing needs assessment is the city's latest attempt to get a snapshot of the affordability of housing, and whether the city has enough units to keep up with demand. It comes almost four years after an assessment in 2021 found the city needed 2,500 affordable housing units, 1,500 subsidized units, and 50 emergency shelter spaces. "While identified in the prior assessment, issues related to affordability have worsened at a dramatic pace," the consultants say in the executive summary of the latest housing needs assessment. The results were partly based on surveys taken of 899 people, as well as interviews and focus groups done in December and January. Housing units needed outpacing actual starts Census data show Fredericton's population grew eight per cent from 2016 to 2021. While another census hasn't yet been taken, Statistics Canada estimates Fredericton's population grew to 77,500 last year — a 14 per cent increase since 2021. With that, the city's existing shortfall of housing stands at 3,010 units, including 2,235 units of subsidized housing, 655 units of general market-rate housing and 120 units or beds of "safety net housing" to address the homeless population. In addition to that figure, Fredericton will need another 10,385 housing units by 2034 based on population forecasts. That means the city will need about 1,340 units built per year for the next 10 years, however recent figures for housing starts have fallen short of that, and are even trending down. In 2022, housing starts hit a record high of 1,299, but dipped ever since to 1,002 in 2023 and 749 just last year — the lowest they've been since 2020. Despite the trend, Lejeune said he thinks it's "realistic" the city will be able to hit the needed number of new housing units. "But we're going to have to move a whole lot of levers to do it, and we've started to do so." Lejeune said recent zoning changes to allow residential housing within commercial areas and four units in homes across the city will help drive the creation of new units. "There's no one fix to the issues that are out there, but we've got a lot of levers that we can move and pull around, so we're going to do our part." Lejeune said the report will go to the city's planning department, and a meeting will be held with the consultants to discuss whether the city's plans align with what the housing needs assessment revealed. "I think the good news for Fredericton is that, you know, we've done a lot in the last four years since the first housing needs assessment was done," said Ken Forrest, the city's director of planning.
CBC
18-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Large landlord reports biggest operating income increase for Halifax apartments in last 5 years
Halifax-based landlord Killam Apartment REIT reported its largest increase in net operating income in Halifax in the last five years, according to the company's new 2024 year-end financial report. Killam took in $67.32 million in net operating income — revenues made after subtracting the expenses of operating a building — from its Halifax apartments last year. Net operating income is not the same as profit because it excludes expenses like mortgage payments. "Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge remain two of Killam's strongest markets," said executive vice-president Robert Richardson during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts on Feb. 13. Killam owns 5,600 apartments in Halifax and more than 18,000 across Canada. A key topic discussed on the earnings call was a sharp decline at the end of 2024 in Killam's estimate of how much higher market rents are compared to its average rent — a financial metric called the "mark-to-market spread." Killam, like other landlords, tries to boost an apartment's rent to the higher market rate when new tenants move in. In Nova Scotia, the province's rent cap only applies to lease renewals. "It's a … key part of their ability to grow revenue over time," said Neil Lovitt, a vice-president with real estate consulting company Turner Drake. As the gap closes between Killam's rents and the market rate, there's less opportunity to raise rents. "Killam's apartment portfolio rents have room to move [upward], likely in the 15 per cent range," Richardson said, referring to the company's apartments across Canada. In its year-end report, the company said it partners with non-profits and governments to address the need for affordable housing. The report points to stabilizing market rents as a reason for the decline in Killam's mark-to-market spread. "We're getting to a point where … the growth in market rents have hit somewhat of a ceiling," said Lovitt, adding that this is a broad pattern both in Halifax and across Canada. Rents in Nova Scotia increased by 4.8 per cent on average in December compared to the same month in 2023, according to Statistics Canada. That's down significantly from a peak rent inflation rate of 14.6 per cent in October 2023. Still, Killam estimates that market rents in Halifax are about 25 per cent higher than its average rent — the highest differential among the regions it has apartments in, according to Killam's earnings call slide show. Chief financial officer Dale Noseworthy said the company's success in raising rents to the market rate is also part of the reason why its opportunity to do so has decreased. "We've achieved some really strong rents," Noseworthy said during the earnings call. "I'd say … both those markets [Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge] are holding up very well."
