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A new cohort is joining young Canadians and others frustrated by sky-high rents and soaring housing costs: seniors.

A looming affordability crisis is poised to hit seniors across the country as the baby boom generation makes its long-predicted shift into its golden years, squeezing the supply of retirement home places and pushing up rents, according to a new report from the rating agency DBRS Ltd.

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“For seniors who live on a fixed income or a government pension, they are facing the affordability issue even more,” said Karen Gu, senior vice-president at DBRS and a co-author of the report. “The younger generation at least has the possibility of a regular job and a pay cheque.”

The average rents for seniors’ homes varied across the country in 2017, with Ontario holding the highest at $3,526 per month and Quebec the lowest at $1,678 per month. Should rents continue to grow at the current rate of 4.7 per cent year, the national average could reach just over $4,000 a month by 2025, the report cautions.