As more immigrants make Sask. home, pressure on the rental market is hurting affordability

Shafqat Nabi and Aisha Jamal say that in their short time in the city, they have found Saskatoon to be a very welcoming place — but not its rental market.

The couple and their twin daughters moved to Saskatoon from Qatar last month. They also visited the city last summer, and they say rents have really jumped since then.

"I definitely feel there is a jump of almost 20 per cent in terms of rent, and there are a lesser number of houses available at this point of time," Nabi said.

According to a recent report from Rentals.ca, "Saskatchewan overtook Alberta to become the provincial leader in annual rent growth in April," posting an 18.4 per cent increase. The report said the average rent in Saskatchewan is about $1,300. The national average asking price is almost $2,300.

Nabi and Jamal said that after a lot of research, they found a rental unit that meets their needs on the west side of the city for $1,850.

"But when it comes to the price, yes, we have to stretch our budget, which is very important for us because we have just landed. We don't have jobs and we have to set up the whole house," Jamal said.

Saskatoon and Regina were two of the three census metropolitan areas in Canada that saw the largest increases in the annual number of immigrants arriving between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

During that time period, the population of the Saskatoon area increased by 16,161 and Regina by 10,585.

Nabi said that as the couple tracked the rents in Saskatoon before they arrived, they found many websites where rental listings had bidding quotes. He said to even arrange the showing of a listing, they had to bid the quoted price or higher.

"It's like whoever can bid the highest, it becomes an open market. That means any property developer can demand anything," the 49-year-old said.

"Rent control has to be there because a lot of new immigrants are coming."

Rent control means that the government sets a maximum rate that rents can increase each year. In Ontario, for example, most landlords can increase their rents by up to 2.5 per cent in 2024. Generally, the maximums only apply to tenants currently renting a unit, and landlords can increase rents between leases as high as the market can bear.

Cameron Choquette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Landlord Association, agreed that the rental market is very tight, with vacancy rates lower than one per cent in some neighbourhoods.

But while B.C., Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, P.E.I., and Quebec have some forms of rent control policies in place, Choquette said he would not advocate for the introduction of rent control in Saskatchewan.