Subject: 2006 Unit Rent Factors for Private Non-profits
Legislation/Regulation Release 05-06
Operational
Unit Rent Factors (URFs) are figures derived from typical market rents, which are used in the calculation of subsidy in the budgets of private non-profit housing corporations. There are URFs for each of the approximately 150 rent districts in the province. URFs are reviewed and revised annually by the ministry to reflect changes in local market rents.
Non-Profit’s Responsibility
URFs are used on page 3 of the Private Non-Profit Operating Budget Form 810(01/95).
There are separate URF tables for apartments and townhouses. URFs are provided for each rent district for units with various numbers of bedrooms. The tables also provide different URFs to reflect the various utility services included in the market rent paid by residents, i.e. no utilities, heat only, hydro only or both heat and hydro. It is important that the correct figure reflecting the services included in market rents be used in the subsidy calculation.
There are no URFs provided for stacked row housing. For units considered as stacked row housing, the average of the apartment and townhouse URF for the same unit type should be used.
There are no URFs for hostel units, as it is assumed that rent-geared-to-income tenants almost exclusively occupy these units. All hostel units should be treated as rent-geared-to-income for subsidy calculation purposes.
Service managers may set a project specific URF for one or more classes of units for a particular housing provider if in their opinion the published URF does not properly reflect the local rental conditions. Normally, a project specific URF is a lower amount than the published URF for a particular rent district.
Further instructions on budget preparation are provided in the ministry's publication Guide For Non-Profit Housing Corporations, Operation Budget and Annual Information Return, released in January 1995.
Action
Private non-profit housing corporations will use the 2006 URFs in the calculation of subsidy when preparing their 2006 budgets for projects currently under administration of local service managers, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care or Ministry of Community and Social Services.
Toni Farley
Director
Social Housing Branch
Attachments: 1. 2006 Schedule for Unit Rent Factors for Apartments 
2. 2006 Schedule for Unit Rent Factors for Townhouses
October 18, 2005