Data sources & tools for multi-family underwriting.
CMHC publishes more rental-market data than any other Canadian organization — the Rental Market Survey alone covers every urban area of 10,000+ population with vacancy, rents, turnover, and universe counts by structure type and geography down to census tract. The challenge is finding the right access point for the question you're asking.
This page indexes CMHC's own datasets (Rental Market Survey, HMIP portal, MLI Select XLSX), programmatic access (StatCan WDS API, cmhc R package, Open Government Portal), and the most useful third-party tools. No official CMHC REST API exists — the cmhc R package is the closest approximation.
Official CMHC data products.
These are the primary CMHC-owned data assets used in multi-family underwriting.
Annual survey (October) covering all urban areas ≥10,000 population. Reports vacancy, avg rent, turnover, rental universe counts by bedroom type, structure size, year, geography down to census-tract.
Open source →Interactive access to Starts & Completions, Rental Market Survey, Secondary Rental Market Survey, Seniors Housing Survey. Data from national to neighbourhood level.
Open source →Downloadable Excel spreadsheet attached to the MLI Select program page — median renter household income by CMA, plus the 30% monthly rent threshold used for affordability scoring. Updated annually.
CMHC publishes legacy rent-percentile-based affordability criteria as a supplemental PDF — still referenced by some CMHC direct-lending programs (AHF, CHDP) in tandem with the MLI Select income-based thresholds.
APIs, packages, bulk downloads.
CMHC does not publish an official REST API. The closest substitutes: StatCan's Web Data Service mirroring CMHC rent data, the community-maintained cmhc R package that wraps HMIP, and bulk CSV dumps through the federal Open Government Portal.
Mirrors CMHC average rents for 247 geographies. Accessible via StatCan Web Data Service API.
Open source →CRAN package wrapping the HMIP portal — the closest thing to a CMHC REST API.
Open source →Bulk CSV downloads of CMHC historical data.
Open source →Lookup tools that complement CMHC data.
External tools that surface CMHC-published thresholds in more ergonomic UIs than the raw XLSX or PDFs.
Public lookup for MLI Select affordable unit rent thresholds by CMA.
Open tool →2025–2026 MLI Select thresholds by CMA.
30% of median renter household income (before tax) — approximate values. For authoritative current-year figures use the CMHC XLSX or the GreenBirch lookup above.
| CMA | Monthly threshold | Implied annual HH income |
|---|---|---|
| Calgary | $1,738/mo | ~$69,520 |
| Toronto (high) | $1,625/mo | ~$65,000 |
| Vancouver (high) | $1,500/mo | ~$60,000 |
| Edmonton (high) | $1,500/mo | ~$60,000 |
| Toronto (low) | $1,450/mo | ~$58,000 |
| Vancouver (low) | $1,375/mo | ~$55,000 |
| Edmonton (low) | $1,375/mo | ~$55,000 |
Implied household income = monthly threshold × 12 / 0.30. See the affordability page for how these thresholds map into MLI Select points.