At $1,200 this Vancouver den is unaffordable to someone working full-time at minimum wage

A screenshot of an ad on Craiglist for a Vancouver rental take on Aug. 1, 2022.

At $1,200 a month, a downtown Vancouver den being advertised on Craigslist would cost someone working full-time at minimum wage roughly half of their monthly earnings.

Like many online listings for shared spaces downtown, bedroom furniture is crammed into a space that the developers of these towers likely planned as a solarium, flex room or bonus space. The sleeping quarters themselves appear to leave little room to move between the single bed and the wall-mounted shelving installed in lieu of a closet.

With the average price of a studio hovering just above $2,000 a month, the cost of this rental is relatively affordable. But affordable, when it comes to housing, has a specific meaning.

"In Canada, housing is considered 'affordable' if it costs less than 30 per cent of a household’s before-tax income," Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation explains on its website.

Someone would have to earn $48,000 a year for this small space in a shared apartment to meet that threshold. For someone working 37.5 hours a week earning B.C.'s minimum wage of $15.65 per hour, paying for this rental would amount to handing over 47 per cent of their pay. It also costs nearly three times what someone on income or disability assistance is allotted for shelter.

This listing boasts a central location in a high-rise building chock full of amenities like in-suite laundry, a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna and fitness centre. Maid service is included in the monthly rate.

Robert Patterson, a lawyer with the Tenant Resource Advisory Council, told CTV News last month that rental listings like these are often an attempt to share the sky-high cost of renting in luxury buildings – which he says are being built at a rate that far outpaces the development of affordable options.

"There's simply nothing available at an affordable rate in their community, that's why people will turn to something like this," he says.

"People, because they can't find anything affordable, they'll take something that's unaffordable and hope and try the best they can to get other people to split the cost with them."

A substantial investment in co-op affordable and non-market options is, according to Patterson, the only strategy that will successfully drive down prices in Canada's most expensive market.

CTV News Vancouver has reached out to the person who posted the ad and this story will be updated if a response is received.