Heading Back to the Office? Here’s How Much it Will Cost You Thanks to Inflation + MORE May 26th

Beverly McCool has a thing for real estate. She and her husband have invested in residential rental properties over the past several years, making them part of a large group of Canadians who have chosen to be landlords. According to Statistics Canada, multiple-property owners accounted for 31% of homes in Ontario and 29% of homes in B.C. in 2019 and 2020.

McCool had wanted to add commercial real estate to her portfolio, but “between the significant costs and not knowing anything about managing it, I was intimidated,” she says. So, when the 37-year-old day-home owner from Grande Prairie, Alta., saw an ad on social media for Willow, a company that sells fractional ownership in Canadian commercial properties, she jumped at the chance to get into the market.

McCool visited Willow’s website and learned about the company’s PropSharing model, which lets investors buy and sell shares of commercial property in much the same way stocks are traded. Willow buys the properties and divides them each into 100,000 units of ownership, which are sold on its digital platform…

Over the last few months, Canadians have slowly started returning to the office—and many more will likely head back soon. Among the adjustments they’ve had to make is getting used to wearing real pants instead of sweatpants, and remembering how to make small talk with co-workers. 

And then there’s the biggest change: how much more it costs to get to work in 2022. Since the Covid-19 pandemic caused the first Canadian lockdowns in early 2020, inflation has risen to over 5 per cent for the first time since 1991. In March 2022, it reached 6.7 per cent. Driven by supply-chain issues and high fuel prices, the cost of most consumer goods has risen enough that you will feel the difference in your wallet. 

“Many people don’t leave much room in their budget to accommodate these kinds of changes,” says Walid Hejazi, an associate professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He explains that a large segment of the population spend most of their earnings and even run up debt on their credit cards; Canadian households held about $80-billion in credit card debt as of February, which is an increase of nearly 9 per cent from a year prior…