Real costs.

A Mar 29, 2024, CBC article, "Ottawa has proposed a renters' bill of rights. Will it help?," reported that Tony Irwin, president and CEO of the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO), told CBC senior reporter Mark Gollum that "maintenance, property taxes, utilities, insurance" are "real costs for rental housing providers" and need to be "considered as part of a broader conversation."

Note that the justification for price gouging by rent-seekers exploiting housing is suddenly the fault of "real costs", not "supply and demand."

I would like to ask Mr. Irwin how much housing providers mark up "maintenance, property taxes, utilities, and insurance."

According to Statistics Canada, for Lessors of residential buildings and dwellings (except social housing projects), Operating profit margin has increased steadily from 41.3% in 2012 to 47.2% in 2022 over the timespan available for this particular data point.

Operating profit margin for other segments of the service sector during the same period is well under 10% and averages around 4%.

Note also that of its eight components, Shelter accounts for 26.8% of CPI, the most widely used measure of inflation.