Keelan Dunn is a second-year Film and TV Production student at Humber Polytechnic with no clear vision of what his future housing might look like.
“I really like the house the house my parents own, it’s out in the country, and it's very (secluded),” he said. “I like being out there because I find it's a lot more peaceful. I don't have planes flying over my head.”
But Dunn’s career path will take him into the city, working on movie and TV sets with long hours, sometimes even 16 hours a day.
“I've also at one point considered getting like one of those sprinter vans and renovating that, and basically, I drive to the parking lot of the set I'm on, and I'll live out of my van,” he said. “I have the equipment I need there, and I can do that, and then I don't have housing costs.”
In the short term, Dunn is renting the upper floor of a house just north of Pearson Airport with three roommates at about $1,000 a month, depending on utilities, and might be in such a situation for a while.
“Compared to other places, it's a really good house. It’s very clean, and I'm also not living in a basement,” he said. “Because [of] what I want to get into, there's not a lot of job security. I'm hoping I can sign year leases. But it's also dependent on how much work there is when I get out of Humber.”
Dunn has at least been given a boost from his family, investing money early and building a small nest egg for the future.
“I have a bunch of money saved up in investments; when I decide to go buy a home, I can spend that and give myself a boost,” he said.
Dunn also hopes to have a family in the future, but with how financial concerns stress younger people’s budgets, it might not happen soon.
“I want to be able to support myself before I start expanding,” he said.
While a 2024 Scotiabank polling finds that 58 per cent of Canadian Millennials and Gen Z are planning on buying a home in the next five years, the cost of getting land in a major city like Toronto may force them to rent for a longer time than normal before purchasing a home. The survey of 3,017 Canadians also found that 55 per cent of Millennials and 58 per cent of Gen Z feel that buying a home is unattainable.
Even with his investments, Dunn struggles to build up savings while renting and going to Humber.
“For the most part, a lot of the stuff I'm making now is just going straight back into expenses,” he said.
But this issue is largely pushed forward by the hours eaten up in a week for schoolwork and might change in the future.
“Looking at what I'm going to be making over the summer, I'm going to be saving up over the summer to cover a bunch throughout the year,” he said. “[Because] during the school year, I'm capped at the amount of hours I'm working.”
For now, Dunn doesn’t stress over getting to own a home in his short-term plans.
“At this point, I'm just taking it one day at a time,” he said. “I'd love to look 10 years in the future, and I am. But what can I do now to help tomorrow and then continue that?”
