New Housing Needs Assessment Released

Like many Canadian communities, the City of St. John’s is experiencing mounting housing pressures. Demand for affordable housing is higher than ever before, while market values, sale prices and rent are increasing faster than household incomes.

On Wednesday, July 26, Council will receive a first look at the recently completed 2023 Housing Needs Assessment.

Given the new and evolving local housing market conditions and the availability of recently updated Census data, the City retained a consulting team led by Turner Drake & Partners, in partnership with David Harrison, MCIP and Upland Planning + Design Studio, to complete the newest iteration of its Housing Needs Assessment.

The first assessment was completed in 2019, shortly after Council approved the City’s 10-year Affordable Housing strategy.

Did you know that our population is projected to grow by about 5% between 2023-2028? Growth continues to be the strongest in the senior’s age group, but we are also seeing noteworthy growth for 25-to-44-year-olds. In addition, St. John’s is seeing increased in-migration from inside and outside Canada, that has not been met by new housing inventories. Using modest population projections, there is an estimated housing shortage of 1,110 units this year, and this shortage is estimated to increase to 3,080 units by 2028 and 4,315 by 2033.

Aside from shortages in housing, the assessment reports on concerns with the available housing supply. There have been overall increases in households living in inadequate (11%) and unsuitable (22%) conditions and an overall decrease in those living in unaffordable (8%) conditions. Renters have the highest rate of unaffordability at 32% – roughly 5,895 households – despite a 13% decrease between 2016 and 2021. Eleven percent currently live in deeply unaffordable dwellings.

The Housing Needs Assessment includes analysis of our current housing supply and needs, the results of a survey on housing and an updated inventory of the City’s non-market housing.

The report recommends deepened and new partnerships with non-market housing providers, exploring ways to share data and communicate collaboratively, educating residents about local housing needs, and promoting and protecting market housing affordability.

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