The Housing Strategy establishes a long-term direction for expanding student accommodation, strengthening the student experience, and supporting a more sustainable housing future for both Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s and the Kingston community.
Key priorities for Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s are returning to the full first-year student residence guarantee, expanding housing options for research-based graduate students, including those with accompanying family members, as well as providing additional housing options for upper-year undergraduate students.
Background
For the last decade Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s has been an active participant in City-led efforts to understand the impact of ongoing private sector development in the areas identified by the City of Kingston as priority areas for intensification such as the Williamsville neighbourhood. As that work has progressed, the university initiated a demand study to get a better understanding of student housing needs and impacts on the Kingston market, leading to this longer-term housing strategy for the University.
- In 2025, Kingston’s vacancy rate was 2.4%, below the 4% vacancy rate required for a balanced housing market (the vacancy rate at which rents are expected to increase at the same rate as overall inflation).
- In the medium growth scenario of the , estimates indicate that approximately 900 new housing units are needed in the city annually to accommodate non-student population growth alone.
Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s new comprehensive housing strategy responds to housing pressures in Kingston, ensures student housing needs will continue to be met, and provides for a much-needed variety of flexible options in our housing portfolio, which will help us attract world-class research-based graduate students.
It would also enable us to reestablish a full residence guarantee for all first-year undergraduate students – to support the critical first-year transition to university, and to the unique Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s community and student experience.
Project Consultants
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