Northern Housing Report

Key highlights

• Residential construction experienced a slowdown across all 3 Territories, indicating potential future constraints in housing supply. Housing starts decreased due to labour shortage and rising material costs.
• The population in all 3 Territories is aging rapidly, which could lead to challenges in providing adequate social and housing support.
• Tighter monetary policy has slowed down inflation but has also made financing more challenging for both homebuyers and homebuilders. We also expect current monetary policy to impact future housing supply in the North.
• Affordability has likely worsened since the 2021 Census data was collected, as rents and homeownership costs have been increasing while growth in incomes has not kept pace.
• Wages increased in all 3 Territories, but this growth has not kept pace with the rising costs of mortgage payments, impacting affordability negatively.
• While the growth rate of house prices slowed down in some centres compared to 2022, they continue to remain high.
• In Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Nunavut, core housing need decreased between 2016 and 2021 due to a smaller proportion of the population lived in unaffordable housing. However, the number of households living in inadequate and/or unsuitable homes increased.

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