Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Northern Housing Report describes continued severe limits on available housing in Iqaluit. It says Nunavut Housing Corporation public housing made up about one fifth of Iqaluit’s rental stock, while government staff and other employer-provided homes made up roughly two thirds of all rental housing in the city.

CMHC says rental availability tightened in Iqaluit in 2025 despite slower housing demand. It also says Nunavut’s real residential-construction investment index fell to 63 in 2025, down from 87 in 2024, using 2021 as the baseline of 100.

The agency expects private-market supply to rise in 2026 because units were under construction in Iqaluit. But it cautions that the increase is not expected to significantly narrow the gap between housing starts per person in the territories and elsewhere in Canada. ᓇᑭᓐᖔᖅᓯᒪᓂᖏᑦ↗

The findings show why a rise in construction does not necessarily mean housing will soon be easier to find. Much of Iqaluit’s rental housing is tied to employment, leaving a smaller pool for other renters. The report also points to a mismatch between the need for public housing and the number of habitable, available units.

CMHC’s forecast for 2026 is an expectation, not a confirmed delivery schedule. The report does not identify the Iqaluit projects expected to add private-market homes, their unit counts, their rents or completion dates. Updated housing-start, vacancy and public-housing-waitlist figures will be needed to show whether conditions improve.

The report was published July 29, 2026. Its Iqaluit public-housing waitlist figure is from February 2025, not a current October 2026 count. CMHC uses Nunavut-wide population and some labour-market data as a proxy for Iqaluit where city-level data are unavailable. Its construction-cost comparison does not include Iqaluit because CMHC says comparable cost indices do not cover the city.