Residential rents in Canada fell for the first time since mid-2021

A report issued by the Rentals.ca website for rental housing and Urbanation, a real estate research organization, stated that the average monthly rent required for housing across Canada amounted to $2,152 last October, a decrease of 1.2%. % for the same month in 2023. This is the first annual decline for all of Canada since July 2021.

The decline is mainly concentrated in large urban centres, with cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal seeing a decline in residential rents.

Urbanation President Shawn Hildebrand says it’s rare for rents to fall on an annual basis nationally.

Now, “this is happening because the main drivers of rental growth in recent years, from a strong economy to a rapidly increasing population to declining affordability of homeownership, are beginning to reverse,” Hildebrand explains.

“We can therefore expect that this trend in rentals will likely continue in the near term, especially with apartment completions continuing at record levels,” adds the Urbanization president.

British Columbia and Ontario recorded the largest annual decline in residential rents among the provinces, as the former saw the average monthly rent required for a home decrease by 3.4% to $2,549, and the latter recorded a decrease of 5.7% to $2,350.

The average monthly rental requirement for a home increased by 17.1% in Saskatchewan, which remained the province with the fastest growing rents in the country, after its rents recorded an annual growth of 23.5% in September.

On the city level, Toronto, the capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada, recorded the largest annual decline in rents required for residential apartments in October, by 9.2%, reaching an average of $2,642 per month.

Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, witnessed an annual decline of 8.4%, bringing the average monthly rent required for a residential apartment there to $2,945.

The asking monthly rent for an apartment in Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, decreased by 4.7% to $1,995.

In Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec and the second largest city in Canada, the average monthly rent required for a residential apartment decreased by 2.9% to reach $1,987.

In the federal capital, Ottawa, a slight increase of 0.4% was recorded, bringing the average monthly rent required for a residential apartment to $2,207.

Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, topped Canadian cities in terms of apartment rent growth, as the average monthly asking rent rose by 8.4% annually to $1,584.

The asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment recorded an annual decrease of 0.8% to reach $1,923 in October, while the rent for a two-bedroom apartment decreased by 0.2% to $2,308.

In general, the asking rent for apartments built specifically for rent increased by 1.7% within a year, reaching $2,100 in October.

The asking rent for condominium apartments decreased by 3.8% within a year to reach $2,265 in October.

(Quoted from Report by the Canadian Press (new window) Published on Radio Canada’s website, translated and prepared by Fadi Al-Harouni)