The City of Barrie ranked as the seventh most expensive rental market in Canada in a recent report. Rental listing platform Zumper.com released its February report which places Barrie behind Toronto, Victoria, Halifax and Ottawa, with Vancouver and Burnaby, B.C. leading the way for the priciest places to rent in the nation. According to the data, a one-bedroom unit in Barrie costs on average $1,960, while a two-bedroom runs around $2,130. The report states the city continued to have the highest annual growth in one-bedroom rent rates, up 10.1 per cent annually. Zumper.com reports that Canada’s rental market is seeing some relief as more units become available. It notes government incentives for pushing along the number of newly built rental units that have nearly doubled since 2018. The surge has helped to ease tight market conditions and offer renters more options. No other municipalities in Simcoe County or Muskoka were named among the report’s 23 most expensive Canadian rental markets. Toronto dropped out of its second place holding to land in third, behind Burnaby, B.C., with the city’s one-bedroom rentals falling 3.4 per cent to $2,300, compared to Burnaby’s rent climbing 3 per cent to $2,400.
