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[Visual: Joelle Hamilton and Aled Ab Iorwerth sit in armchairs in a recording studio. Joelle has medium-length wavy brown hair with bangs, and she wears a brown cardigan with a leopard-print skirt. Aled has short white hair with a mustache and glasses, and he wears a white shirt with a gray suit. Microphones on stands and side tables frame their chairs. Documents rest on an open laptop on Joelle's table.]

00:00:00:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

What's the most important takeaway from this year's report?

00:00:04:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

What we're finding is that affordability challenges have improved slightly across the capitals, but the challenge is that there's a long-term problem of affordability.

00:00:17:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

If there is more housing in the pipeline, why is it still so difficult to find housing?

00:00:21:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

The cost of construction, the availability of the workforce, it's very challenging. And so because of this limitation on supply, you see very low vacancy rates.

00:00:31:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

What are the biggest housing questions facing the North?

00:00:34:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

How do we continue to increase housing supply in the North and to do so at relatively low cost?

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00:00:43:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

You're listening to In-House, Canada's Housing Podcast, where we share the latest on Canada's housing market.

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[Joelle sits in the studio.]

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According to CMHC's latest Northern Housing Report, housing demand slowed across the territories in 2025, but housing challenges remain. In today's episode of In-House, we're going to explore why housing is still so difficult to find and afford in many northern communities, and what makes housing in the North different from the rest of Canada.

We're specifically going to look at housing conditions in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit, and the unique factors shaping housing across the North, from supply constraints to the important role of non-market housing.

I'm your host, Joelle Hamilton, and joining me today in the studio is Deputy CMHC Chief Economist Aled Ab Iorwerth. Welcome back, Aled.

[Visual: Joelle and Aled sit across from each other in the studio. Behind them, a wall-mounted screen displays text that reads, "In-House, Canada's Housing Podcast."]

00:01:39:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Thank you.

00:01:45:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

So before we dive into kind of the crux of the conversation, I'd really love to start with like a quick kind of 20-second soundbite. So if you look across the northern capitals that I just named, what's the most important takeaway from this year's report?

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00:02:04:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

What we're finding is that affordability challenges have improved slightly across the capitals, but the challenge is that there's a long-term problem of affordability. So yes, there has been some improvement, but there is still a long-term structural challenge, and that's across the territories. The economies of the territories have diverged a little bit, a little bit stronger, perhaps, in Nunavut than in the other territories. But this core issue of lack of affordable housing is widespread across the territories.

00:02:41:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

So let's… so let's shift our focus to talk more about demand. And I really want to get more into details about what our Northern Housing Report shares. What changed in 2025 that helped shape that story that you just introduced to us?

00:02:57:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Well, what we're seeing is the changes in particular within the mining industry. So there are differences, obviously, across the territories. And some of those differences are driven by what is happening by a particular mine and a particular type of product.

So because of that, the economy has been a little bit stronger in Nunavut, but mine closures or mine limitations are slowing the economies in the Northwest Territories and in the Yukon, and this is having a knock-on impact on demand for housing. It's affecting the flow of people in and out of the territories, into the capitals. And so this is altering the demand for housing. And so, I mean, it's a bit of a good news, bad news story. The economy has been a little bit weaker, particularly in the Northwest and in the Yukon. And that has, in turn, has helped affordability a little bit. So that affordability has improved. But it may be because of a little bit of weaker demand from changes in the economy.

00:04:06:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

So, you know, as we already mentioned, housing demand slowed in the territories in 2025, and there are more housing projects kind of underway or in the pipeline. Why is, if there is more housing in the pipeline, why is it still so difficult to find housing?

00:04:24:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Well, I think there are general supply problems in the territories, and we'll get more into this, but the cost of construction, the availability of the workforce, it's very challenging. And so because of this limitation on supply, you see very low vacancy rates in market housing.

In Iqaluit, for example, where there is very limited market housing to start with. The vacancy rate on rental properties is vanishingly small. And this again speaks to the challenge of the need to build more housing in the North. I would say particularly in the capitals, but this is widespread across the territories as well.

00:05:09:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

One, you know, one statistic really jumped out at me, and it was related to rental conditions in Iqaluit. And in Iqaluit, there were only 6 vacant rental units out of 2,000 available. And I really wanted to highlight that because it's virtually 0. I think the report says 0.3%.

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And how do we encourage temporary workers to come in and work in construction to build that supply that we're saying is desperately needed in the North when we don't even have a place to house them? But I think you'll touch on that shortly.

Another thing that stands out is that, you know, the situation in the North looks very different than the rest of Canada. So when we talk about solving the supply challenges up there, there are very unique obstacles and challenges. Can you get into more detail about those?

00:06:05:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Sure. The most notable difference is on construction costs. The building season obviously is very short because of the long winters, but then getting the materials into the territories, the cost of transportation, the cost of transporting fuels in order to ensure construction takes place, all of this is extremely expensive.

So we have analysis in the reports on comparing construction costs in the territories with Calgary, just as an example, and clearly the construction costs in the North are significantly higher. And this is, you know, just relating to the materials themselves, but there are also challenges of getting the workforce … and all of this... Plus on top of that, as I started out by saying, the risks involved in if the supply chain breaks and if you can't finish this year, then you have to wait for next year. All of this leads to huge challenges on the construction side.

So this, then, in turn, morphs over not just into market housing, but also into other types of housing, social and affordable housing. There are clear overcrowding challenges in Nunavut.

And so, again, we need more construction, more supply of housing across the North, not just in market housing, but in social housing.

You asked about differences with the South, and this is one of the important elements in the North, that the social and affordable housing plays a much greater, much more important role in housing people. And this is in particular the case with Indigenous households.

00:07:43:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

Yeah, I read that… So in Canada, the share of social housing as new construction is like 6% across the country. And then in Nunavut, it is 93%, Northwest Territories, 36%, Yukon, 35%. So those are considerably higher than our 6% average throughout the rest of the country.

00:08:05:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Yeah, and obviously that's new housing, which is really required because one, as I mentioned, there is overcrowding in the existing housing stock, but also there are some quality issues with some of the existing stock as well. So that's why new social and affordable housing is clearly needed.

00:08:25:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

So if we zoom out a little bit and take more of like a long-term view, when we look beyond this year or maybe even into the next … like 2 years, what are the biggest housing questions facing the North?

00:08:41:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

Well, I think, first of all, we really need to do more to understand the trajectory of the economy. I think population can move to the North, depending on the state of the mining industry. But clearly, there are economic opportunities in the North. But the workforce tied to that needs to be housed and housed at a reasonably affordable rate.

So I think what we need to explore is how do we continue to increase housing supply in the North and to do so at relatively low cost. I mean, clearly there will be transportation cost challenges, but are there other opportunities for low-cost development of housing in the North?

00:09:21:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

If the current projects that are in the pipeline continue to move ahead as planned, you know, is it a story of us really catching up or falling behind, still falling behind slowly when it comes to meeting the supply demand?

00:09:38:00

[Speaker: Aled Ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist - CMHC]

I think we still need to do more, and in particular to lower the construction costs. There are challenges, I would say, particularly in Nunavut, in terms of overcrowding. And I think that is… we don't have a good handle on the extent of that challenge. We need to do more work to understand it. But my general belief is that more housing is required, particularly in Nunavut, and in that context, to work with Indigenous households, in particular.

00:10:09:00

[Speaker: Joelle Hamilton, Communications & Marketing - CMHC]

Well, that's a wrap on today's episode, Aled.

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I think we've covered all the main points that are highlighted by the Northern Housing Report. Thanks again for being in the studio with us and always walking us through complex subject matter in a way that's very, very easy to understand.

And thank you to you, our viewers, for joining us In-House.

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Don't miss our next episodes for more real, data-driven discussions. If you're learning from and or enjoying this podcast, please share this episode, follow us, or subscribe.

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Reach out, let us know what you think. Thanks for listening and see you next time.

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