Canada’s largest and most expensive cities, Vancouver and Toronto, saw declines in asking rents compared to a year ago
AVERAGE asking rent for all property types increased 10.5% annually to $2,193, the fastest annual growth since September 2023 according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation’s latest National Rent Report.
Compared to February 2022, just before the onset of interest rate increases by the Bank of Canada, average asking rents in Canada have increased by 21%, translating to a $384 per month increase.
“The rapid rate of rent growth in Canada is unrelenting,” said Shaun Hildebrand, President of Urbanation. “While some markets are experiencing a softening in rents, others are seeing an acceleration, with an underlying theme that rental supply remains grossly insufficient to meet current levels of demand.”
Purpose-built rental apartments saw a 14.4% annual growth, reaching an average of $2,110 in February. Similarly, condominium rental apartments saw a 5.0% year-over-year increase, with average asking rents of $2,372, while apartments in houses averaged asking rents of $2,347, rising by 5.3% annually.
While Ontario and British Columbia posted the slowest growth in asking rents for purpose-built and condo apartments at the provincial level in February, with annual increases of 1.0% and 1.3% respectively, Alberta maintained its lead as the province with the fastest-growing rents. Alberta witnessed average asking rents for apartments increase by 20.0% annually, with one-bedroom apartment asking rents growing by 20.4% to an average of $1,531, and two-bedroom apartment asking rents increasing by 18.8% annually to $1,886.
Conversely, Canada’s largest and most expensive cities, Vancouver and Toronto, saw declines in asking rents compared to a year ago. The average asking rent for purpose-built and condo apartments decreased by 3.3% annually in Vancouver and 1.3% annually in Toronto, reaching $3,017 and $2,803, respectively. Meanwhile, Edmonton emerged as the leader for rent increases among Canada’s largest cities, posting annual growth of 17.3% to reach an average of $1,489 for purpose-built and condo apartments.
In smaller markets, Quebec led rent growth among small-to-mid-sized cities, with notable increases observed in Pointe-Claire (+27.9%), while Lloydminster led rent growth in Alberta (+25.7%) and Langley saw the fastest rising rents in B.C. (+20.3%).
Additionally, the number of listings for shared accommodations tracked in four provinces in Canada surged 72% in February compared to a year ago. Average asking rents for shared accommodations rose by 12% annually to $1,010, led by significant growth in B.C. (+13%) and Alberta (12+).
The National Rent Report charts and analyzes monthly, quarterly and annual rates and trends in the rental market on national, provincial, and municipal levels across all listings on the Rentals.ca Network for Canada. The data from the digital rental platform Rentfaster.ca is incorporated into this report.
Rentals.ca Network data is analyzed and the report is written by Urbanation, a Toronto-based real estate research firm providing in-depth market analysis and consulting services since 1981.
*The data includes single-detached homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses, condominium apartments, rental apartments and basement apartments (outlier listings are removed, as are single-room rentals.)
