Although rent has dropped within some major cities across the province, there are still places in Ontario that seem to be seeing more empty homes than ones that are occupied.
On March 15, Point2 released a report that revealed the rates in unoccupied private dwellings across the country, from new homes to hit the market to vacation houses. The study was based on population and housing data for 150 cities across the country from Statistics Canada.
Point2 found that national vacancy rates in Canada have actually fallen for the first time in two decades, despite there being around 1.3 million empty residential homes in 2021.
They also found that 87 out of the 150 major Canadian cities saw their rates fall compared to rates in 2011.
Out of the 60 spots that were measured in Ontario, Windsor and Stouffville saw the sharpest decrease in the number of dwellings that were being occupied in their respective areas.
Here are the five southern Ontario cities that saw the biggest drops in vacant homes over the last decade:
1. Windsor (-38%)
2. Whitchurch-Stouffville (-38%)
3. Lakeshore (-34%)
4. St. Thomas (-34%)
5. Welland (-33%)
In contrast, 26 other Ontario cities saw more unoccupied residential homes within the last decade, as Sault Ste. Marie topped the list at 61%.
Here are the top five cities across the province that had the largest rates of empty homes within the last decade:
1. Sault Ste. Marie (61%)
2. Caledon (54%)
3. Burlington (54%)
4. Aurora (51%)
5. Richmond Hill (49%)