Nunavut property values jump in five-year StatsCan study

This Statistics Canada Chart shows the rising total value of residential property values across Nunavut between 2007 and 2012.

While many Nunavut residents live in chronically overcrowded homes and struggle to pay some of the highest rents in the country, home property values in Nunavut continue to increase significantly.

That’s according to new data released by Statistics Canada which says residential property values in Nunavut increased by about 51 per cent between 2007 and 2012.

The total value of residential properties in Nunavut in 2012 stands at about $1.2 billion, according to StatsCan data released July 7.

This figure has increased from 2007’s $804-million worth of residential property in Nunavut.

The StatsCan data shows that the increase in those property values in the last year surveyed — between 2011 and 2012 — was only about 2.5 per cent, the smallest increase in the five years surveyed.

Communities across Nunavut have long suffered from overcrowded homes, giving rise to numerous health and social problems ranging from high blood pressure and food insecurity to increased frequency of sexual and domestic abuse.

This remains a topic that MLAs regularly bring up in the legislative assembly: the members for Pond Inlet and Gjoa Haven provide two recent examples of this.

It’s no secret to Nunavummiut that rental costs in the territory are among the highest in the country.

A 2010 study by StatsCan pegged Iqaluit as Canada’s most expensive rental market.