RENTT: By David Gargaro
Canada’s rental housing association leaders weigh in on regional and national housing concerns Over the last year, the federal government has implemented policies and regulations that directly affected the rental housing industry. Some of these measures included launching Build Canada Homes to increase the pace of construction, removing the GST and federal component of the HST from new purpose-built rental housing, expanding financing options for rental housing construction, and instituting the Canada Rental Protection Fund to help protect existing rental stock. Other measures have had varying impacts on different Canadian regions. The Bank of Canada reduced the policy interest rate four times in 2025 but has held the line during the most recent announcement periods. This stability should make financing new rental developments more predictable for the immediate future, although not cutting interest rates to help reduce inflation could affect housing demand in other segments. Canada’s immigration policy shift has helped to reduce demand for rental housing, which has negatively affected asking rents for parts of BC and Ontario where there are higher concentrations of temporary workers and students. In this month’s issue, we asked our esteemed RENTT (Rental Executives National Think Tank) panellists, who are leaders of rental housing associations across Canada, to state what policy, funding or regulatory changes they would be advocating for most strongly this year and what would have the greatest impact on their region. We also asked them about regional issues that are being overlooked on a national level. 14 | March 2026