A dystopian report says Torontonians should earn $86,000 to comfortably rent a one-bedroom

Torontonians need to make roughly $44 an hour (or $86,000 a year) to comfortably rent a one-bedroom apartment, according to a new report from real estate company Zoocasa. It determined the figure by analyzing data from Rentals.ca, taking into account the one-third rule: a person’s rent should take up a maximum of one-third of their income.

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Zoocasa released its findings as a response to five provinces, including Ontario, raising their minimum wages at the beginning of October. Locally, the minimum wage stands at $17.60, up 40 cents. Given that the average rent for a one-bedroom in Toronto is currently $2,295 a month, Ontario’s minimum wage would need to spike by 150 per cent for residents earning that amount to be able to afford housing without using up more than a third of their income.

The problem isn’t isolated to downtown. To comfortably rent a one-bedroom in Oakville, for example, would-be tenants need to earn $42.81 an hour; in Etobicoke, $41.98 an hour; in North York, $41.62 an hour; and in Mississauga, $41.12 an hour.

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Toronto, though, isn’t Canada’s worst offender. “Nowhere is the disparity between income and rent more pronounced than in British Columbia,” says the report, with Vancouver and North Vancouver topping the list.

Mathieu Pierre Dagonas, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, says the country as a whole can mitigate the affordability crisis by prioritizing public land for non-profit and co-op housing projects. Preserving existing affordable rentals and ushering in stronger pro-tenant laws, he adds, can also help. “Collaboration with provincial and federal partners is essential—no single level of government can solve this crisis alone.”