Methodology for the Secondary Rental Market Survey

CMHC conducts an annual survey of the Secondary Rental Market¹ in September and October. Its goal is to estimate the relative strengths in the secondary rental market.

This survey includes rental units that aren’t covered by the Rental Market Survey . CMHC has identified the following dwelling components to be included in Secondary Rental Market Survey:

• Rented single-detached houses
• Rented double (semi-detached) houses (meaning, 2 units of approximate equal size and under 1 roof that are situated either side-by-side or front-to-back)
• Rented freehold row/town homes
• Rented duplex apartments (one-above-other)
• Rented accessory apartments (separate dwelling units that are located within the structure of another dwelling type)
• Rented condominiums (can be any dwelling type but are primarily apartments)
• One or two apartments which are part of a commercial or other type of structure

There are three components to the survey conducted in selected Census Metropolitan Areas:

1. A Household Rent Survey of all households to collect information about rents. It provided an estimation of the number of renter households residing in the dwelling types noted above (this was discontinued in 2017).
2. A Condominium Apartment Rent Survey of households living in condominium apartments to collect information about rents (this was discontinued in 2017).
3. A Condominium Apartment Vacancy Survey (now the “Condo Apartment Survey”) of condominium apartment owners to collect vacancy information. As of 2017, this survey was renamed the Condo Apartment Survey. It was expanded to collect not only vacancy information but also rent information captured under the original Condominium Apartment Rent Survey.

The Condo Apartment Survey is conducted through telephone interviews. Information is obtained from condo board representatives, property management companies or their representatives. This is supplemented by site visits if we don’t make any contact by telephone.

Previously, both the Household Rent Survey and Condominium Apartment Rent Survey were household-based telephone surveys. Information was collected from an adult resident living in the household.

The Condo Apartment Survey is conducted in September and the results reflect market conditions at that time. It is conducted in the following 17 Census Metropolitan Areas: Halifax, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Gatineau, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, London, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver, Victoria

Data Reliability Measures

CMHC does not publish a statistic if its reliability is too low or if publication of a statistic would violate confidentiality rules:

For confidentiality, unit counts (universe) are released; however, all other estimates - such as vacancy rates and average rent - are released only if a given estimate is based on four or more responding entities.

For reliability, the ability to publish an estimate is determined by the coefficient of variation (CV) for that estimate. A letter code representing the statistical reliability (i.e., the coefficient of variation (CV)) for each estimate is provided to indicate the data reliability. CV of an estimate is defined as the ratio of the standard error of the estimate to the estimate itself and the CV is generally expressed a percentage. For example, let the average rent for 1-bedroom apartments in a given CMA be x̄ and its standard error be σx̄. Then the Coefficient of Variation is given by CV = σx̄/x̄.

Reliability Codes for Proportions

CMHC uses CV, sampling fraction and universe size to determine the ability to publish proportions. The following letter codes are used to indicate the level of reliability of proportions:

• A — Excellent
• B — Very good
• C — Good
• D — Poor (use with caution)
• ** — Data suppressed

The following tables indicate the level of reliability of proportions:

If the proportion is zero (0) and the sampling fraction is less than 100% then the following levels are assigned:

*(0, 20] means sampling fraction is greater than 0% but less than or equal to 20%; others are similar

Otherwise, the following table is used to determine the reliability level of proportions:

Reliability Codes for Averages and Totals

CMHC uses the CV to determine the reliability level of the estimates of average rents and a CV cut-off of 10% for publication of totals and averages. It is felt that this level of reliability best balances the need for high quality data and not publishing unreliable data.

CMHC assigns a level of reliability as follows (CV’s are given in percentages):

• A — If the CV is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 2.5 then the level of reliability is Excellent.
• B — If the CV is greater than 2.5 and less than or equal to 5 then the level of reliability is Very Good.
• C — If the CV is greater than 5 and less than or equal to 7.5 then the level of reliability is Good.
• D — If the CV is greater than 7.5 and less than or equal to 10 then the level of reliability is Poor (use with caution).
• ** — If the CV is greater than 10 then the estimate is suppressed and not published.

1 The Household Rent Survey and Condominium Apartment Rent Survey were both discontinued in 2017. Collection of secondary rental market information is now limited to CMHC's Condominium Apartment Survey in select Census Metropolitan Areas, as noted.