The Weekly Review, September 30 to October 4, 2024

Investors are more prominent among small condominium apartments in Toronto and Vancouver in 2022

Condominium apartments are the most common type of property owned by investors in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) like Toronto and Vancouver. In 2022, nearly two in five condominium apartments (38.9%) in the Toronto CMA were investment properties, while this was the case for about one in three (34.2%) in the Vancouver CMA. The data released show that there is a higher proportion of investment properties among smaller units (under 600 square feet) than among larger, more family-friendly units (800 square feet and over). Investors are perceived to prefer these units because rent per square foot of living area tends to be higher for smaller units. This may have contributed to the shrinking size of condominium apartments in CMAs.

Source: Investors in the condominium apartment market, 2022

The film and video distribution industry bounces back in 2023

Following substantial COVID-19 pandemic-related losses in 2021, the film and video distribution industry bounced back in 2023, reaching 87.6% of its pre-pandemic revenue levels from 2019. Operating revenues for the film and video distribution industry increased $156.5 million (+10.4%) from 2021 to $1.7 billion in 2023. In 2023, increased sales were largely driven by growth in the distribution of film and video titles, which increased $236.2 million from 2021.

Source: Film and video distribution, 2023

The dental industry sees significant decline in 2020

COVID-19 pandemic-related public health measures had a significant negative impact on output, jobs and hours worked in the dental industry in 2020. Total output in the dental industry dropped 14.6% from 2019 to 2020, falling from $18.1 billion to $15.5 billion. In 2020, all provinces and territories saw a decrease in job levels in dentist office jobs compared with 2019, with Nunavut (-22.6%), Ontario (-18.6%), and the Northwest Territories (-17.6%) experiencing the largest declines. With the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, dental offices largely experienced a recovery in 2021, but this rebound was not consistently seen across Canada.

Source: Looking at the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian dental industry

Revenue of travel arrangement and reservation services hits a record high in 2023

The operating revenue of the travel arrangement and reservation services industry group surged 53.5% to a record high of $15.2 billion in 2023, up 3.8% from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, for the second consecutive year, revenue of tour operators (+69.6% to $9.1 billion) rose at the fastest pace in this industry group, returning to pre-pandemic levels. Operating revenue at travel agencies rose 55.5% year over year to $2.8 billion in 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 11.6%.

Source: Travel arrangement services, 2023

Over half of the households on a wait list for social and affordable housing in Canada live in Ontario in 2022

Approximately 3% or 842,000 Canadians aged 15 and older reported living in subsidized housing during the 2021 Census of Population. A further 245,900 households, or approximately 1% of the 15.5 million households in Canada, were on a wait list for social and affordable housing in 2022. There were over three times as many households in Ontario (136,600 households) on a wait list for social and affordable housing than in Quebec (42,700). Indeed, over half of all households on a wait list for social and affordable housing in Canada in 2022 were living in Ontario. The share of households on a wait list for two years or more in Ontario (1.7% of all households in the province) was over twice that of Quebec (0.7%).

Source: Almost one-quarter of a million Canadian households are on a wait list for social and affordable housing