A new study from an Ottawa-based economic think-tank has revealed that nearly 20 per cent of Canadians face difficulty affording homes for their living, due to which national productivity is unceasingly suffering.

In the study released on Tuesday, the think-tank has estimated that nearly 75 per cent of Canadian families are in a position to afford their homes easily, signifying that housing costs consume no more than 30 per cent of their pre-tax incomes.

The Conference Board terms housing as unaffordable if it spends above 30 per cent of a family's pre-tax income.

20 per cent of the people reportedly struggle to cope with the cost of their homes, and this is the group that often sacrifices the important expenses, such as nutritious food, in order to keep up.

As a consequence, the Conference Board posts that health suffers, productivity and competitiveness are decreased and the cost of health care and welfare is indirectly increased.