Renters’ shelter costs by duration of tenancy

Renters’ shelter costs can vary substantially by duration of tenancy. Renters who recently moved into their dwelling can pay substantially more than longstanding renters. This tenure-based discrepancy in rents paid can have important implications in terms of discouraging residential mobility and, by extension, Canadian labour mobility. Using data from the Census of Population and the National Household Survey, this study sheds light on trends in shelter cost differences by duration of tenancy from 1996 to 2021, and how this gap in rental costs between recent renters and longer-term renters varies across municipalities and neighbourhoods. Findings show that the gap between recent and long-term renters’ shelter costs has widened over the study period and that tenure-based gaps in rental costs are pervasive beyond the priciest housing markets of Toronto and Vancouver. Accounting for comparable dwellings and neighbourhoods, longstanding tenants of five or more years paid approximately 19% less in monthly shelter costs than recent renters (under one year) in 2021 compared with 6% in 1996. The percentage of renters residing in the same dwelling they did five years ago increased from 30% to 42% of all renters during that period.