RBC says the recently announced cap on new study permits won't lead to an outright decrease in demand for rental housing from international students this year.
But a new report from the bank about the cap finds the expected increase in rental demand from international students could fall by about 50 per cent as a result of the policy.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a temporary cap on new study permits over the next two years, as the federal government tries to get a handle on sharp growth in international student enrolments at Canadian post-secondary institutions.
The number of new visas handed out this year will be capped at 364,000, a 35 per cent decrease from the nearly 560,000 issued last year.
"Even though we're going to be limiting the number of international study permits to about half in 2024 relative to what was issued in 2023, that likely won't translate to an immediate fall in the total number of international students in Canada," said economist Rachel Battaglia, the author of the report.
"And because of that, it likely won't lead to an outright decline in the number of rental units demanded by international students in Canada this year."
The Liberal government plans to allocate student permits to provinces in proportion to population share.
The report says the cap will have a larger effect on rental markets in Ontario and British Columbia, given international student admissions in those provinces outweigh their share of the population.
If the cap for this year is extended beyond 2025, RBC says it would lead to a decline in the number of international students in the country and therefore relieve pressure on the rental market more meaningfully.
"In the meantime, post-secondary institutions and other stakeholders must find creative ways to grow the student housing stock amid challenges in quickly building new structures," the report says.
The Liberals' immigration policies, including the international student program, have come under heightened scrutiny as the country experiences rapid population growth.
That growth, fuelled by permanent and non-permanent immigration, has added pressure to the housing market.
According to new data from Rentals.ca and market research firm Urbanation, average asking rent for all property types increased by 10 per cent annually to $2,196 in January, reaching another record high.
Rent prices in Canada soared last year as supply struggled to keep up with demand, leading to the lowest national vacancy rate on record since the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. began tracking that data in 1988.
The federal housing agency said in a report last month that the vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments sat at 1.5 per cent during the first two weeks of October 2023, when it conducted its annual survey.
That was down from 1.9 per cent a year earlier, which at the time had been the lowest national vacancy rate in more than two decades.
The Liberal government has rolled out new policies since the fall aimed at increasing housing supply, including lifting GST charges on new rental developments.
It announced last month that it will invite post-secondary institutions to apply for low-interest loans to build student housing starting this fall.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2024
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
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Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
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Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
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James Bay Ontario Provincial Police have charged four commercial vehicle drivers with impaired, including one who was hauling 36,000 kilograms of ammonia hydrate.
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A union representative says someone driving a pick-up truck with heavily tinted windows rammed a member on Western Road, near Elborn College.
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A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
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A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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