Rent across Canada climbs to 20 per cent above pandemic lows: report

Across Canada, the average price of rent climbed back up after pandemic lows, with the monthly rate new tenants face now 20 per cent higher than it was two years ago, according to just-released rental data. 

The average rental property cost around $1,662 in April 2021, according to data compiled from new listings on Rentals.ca, but the average price to rent is now around $2,002 as of April 2023.

This is 9.6 per cent higher than the same time period last year as well.

When ranked by the price of a one-bedroom apartment, Vancouver was the most expensive city with an average asking price of $2,787, followed closely by Toronto at $2,526.

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This data, posted in a May report by Rentals.ca, is based on monthly listings from rental properties hosted on various rental sites within Rentals.ca's Network of Internet Listings (ILS). It is based on the asking rates of vacant units only, in order to provide a picture of the trends that someone looking for an apartment right now is likely to encounter, according to the report.

And what Canadians are encountering seems to be skyrocketing prices. The report found that the average price for a one-bedroom apartment across 35 of the most populated cities in the country was $1,811, while the average for a two-bedroom was $2,239.

Of these 35 cities, only 10 had average prices below $2,000 for a two-bedroom apartment unit.

When taking into account all of the cities that Rentals.ca tracks, the average for a one-bedroom in April was $1,724, with a two-bedroom costing $2,076 on average. Compared to the prices in April 2022, the cost of a rental unit in an apartment, condominium or house increased by 12.9 per cent, 3.7 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively.

In some regions of Canada, including Calgary and Toronto, rent has jumped up by more than 20 per cent in just one year, according to the report, with only a few cities seeing prices stay stagnant or fall lower than in April 2022.

The cost of living in a rental unit in Ontario saw the biggest annual increase compared to other provinces, with a 16.7 per cent increase in average price.

Alberta saw the second-highest spike, with prices increasing by 14.8 per cent since April 2022. Despite this, it’s still nearly $1,000 cheaper to live in Alberta than to live in Ontario or British Columbia, which saw the slowest annual growth with a 5.6 per cent increase.

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Saskatchewan saw an eight per cent annual increase in average rent but is still markedly cheaper than the provinces topping the expensive scale. You could rent two three-bedroom apartments in Saskatchewan for the price of one three-bedroom apartment in B.C.

Compared to the lowest average rental rate during the pandemic (April 2021), rents have increased by 29 per cent in Ontario and 28 per cent in B.C.

Out of the list comparing the prices in 35 cities, the cheapest place to rent a one-bedroom apart was Regina, Saskatchewan, where the average asking price is around $1,091, the report stated.

Apart from Vancouver and Burnaby, which took third place at $2,330, the most expensive cities or regions to search for a one-bedroom apartment were all from Ontario, with the majority of the top 10 consisting of the regions making up the Greater Toronto Area.

These “mid-sized GTW markets” are becoming more and more expensive, with Scarborough and Brampton seeing annual rent growths of 31.9 per cent and 31.2 per cent respectively.

The report notes that properties which were listed for greater than $5000 a month or less than $500 a month were removed from the sample before averages were created.

The data collected by Rentals.ca differs from the rental data collected by the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) because it comes from active listings hosted on Rentals.ca's sites.

CMHC is the federal corporation responsible for administering the National Housing Act. Their rental price data primarily includes apartment buildings built to be rental units and rental townhouses, whereas Rentals.ca includes basement apartments as well as apartments in condominiums, semi-detached and single-detached houses in their data.

“The Rentals.ca Network of ILS’s data typically provides much higher rental rates compared to CMHC, as vacant units typically reset to market rates when not subject to rent control,” the report stated.

The most recent data from CMHC on average rent across Canada, which comes from October 2022 and was published this March, found that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,779 in Toronto, $2,009 in Vancouver, $1,463 in Calgary and $1,022 in Montreal.