Ottawa Now - Why it's getting tougher for today's tenants to afford rent

A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is examining how much someone would need to earn on an hourly basis in order to rent an apartment. In other words, ‘rental wage’. 62 cities were the focus of this study, with Toronto and Vancouver topping the crowd when it comes to unaffordable housing. So where does Canada’s Capital rank? For Q1 of 2025, the average asking rent for vacant rental units was $2,010 for a 1-bedroom apartment. If you’re looking for a 2-bedroom unit, the average asking rent was $2,490 back then. The CCPA says the average hourly wage required to afford a vacant unit in Ottawa is $39 for a 1-bedroom apartment and $48 for a 2-bedroom apartment. And with the minimum wage currently sitting at $17.20 per hour, you would need to work multiple minimum-wage jobs just to live there. Kristy Cameron digs through the data with Dean Tester on today’s Ottawa Now. He is an advocate for Make Housing Affordable, a non-profit organization.