Rent for two-bedroom apartments in Hamilton nears $2,000 a month
It would take a single Hamiltonian earning minimum wage nearly 20 days of work each month to make rent for a two-bedroom apartment.
The average price of a two-bedroom flat in Steeltown crept up just slightly - less than one per cent - to $1,985 in April compared to March, according to a report from property listing service Rentals.ca.
That is a seven per cent jump, however, since the same time last year.
To give these rates context, The Spectator did some calculations.
According to our findings, a Hamiltonian working an average of 40 hours a week, with an hourly wage of $15.50 an hour, would now need to work at least 19 days a month to make rent on a two-bedroom unit.
A minimum-wage worker would have an estimated monthly, after-tax takeaway of around $2,065 for about four weeks of work. If they had a roommate, it would take approximately 10 days to make their half of the rent.
Even as the rent for a two-bedroom in the city approaches $2,000, Hamilton ranks as the 16th-most expensive city in Canada. The city trails behind both Ottawa and Kitchener, where the same kind of unit costs $2,009 and $2,037 a month, respectively.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton increased to $1,557 in April - a nearly two per cent jump over March and a more than nine per cent jump since April 2021.
To afford a unit of that kind on their own, a Hamiltonian making minimum wage would have to work approximately 15 days to make rent each month.
The city ranked 19th in the report among the top 35 most expensive cities when it comes to one-bedroom living. Vancouver and Toronto top the ranks for single units, with each city costing tenants north of $2,000 a month on average.
Rentals.ca's latest rent rankings, published with residential real estate advisory firm Bullpen Research and Consulting Inc., are the average of all monthly listings on the website.
They include basement apartments, rental apartments, condos, townhouses, semi-detached and single-detached homes.
Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com