Vancouver has the most expensive housing rental market of Canada's biggest cities - but prices have cooled off slightly this year.
While local renters are accustomed to scouring through sky-high prices to find places to live, prices for one-bedroom, unfurnished units have dropped year-over-year, according to the Rentals.ca April 2024 report.
The average price for a newly-listed one-bedroom, unfurnished unit was $2,633 in April 2024 and $2,743 in April 2023, marking a -4 per cent drop year-over-year (see slides one and two).
Despite dropping by $110 since 2023, Vancouver's rent prices are still among the highest in Canada, with only North Vancouver inching ahead. North Vancouver's average prices for newly-listed one-bedroom, unfurnished units climbed to $2,704 this month.
Toronto's rental prices were the third-highest in the country in April 2024, averaging $2,471.
Two other Greater Toronto Area cities, Oakville and Mississauga, rounded out the top five, with prices averaging $2,299 and $2,283, respectively.
Vancouver's average rent prices cooling off after massive increases
Rent prices in Vancouver appear to have levelled off in 2024, following a significant increase from 2022 to 2023.
In April 2022, the prices for one-bedroom, unfurnished units averaged $2,280, meaning they increased by a whopping 17.3 per cent to average $2,743 in 2023 (see slide four)
At $2,280, Vancouver had the highest rent in the country, beating out Toronto's average of $2,023.
Vancouver's April 2022 rent prices had also increased year-over-year by 17.3 per cent; it cost $1,932 to rent a one-bedroom, unfurnished unit in April 2021 (see slide five).
Vancouver still had the highest rent in the county in April 2021, narrowly passing Toronto's average of $1,810. Prices had dropped year-over-year by -3.7 per cent from $2,006 in April 2020 (see slide six).
In April 2020, Toronto's market was more expensive to rent a one-bedroom, with prices averaging $2,213.
Vancouver's 2020 prices had increased 4.3 per cent from before the pandemic when they averaged $1,927 (see slide seven) in April 2019.
In 2019, Vancouver's average prices were the third-highest in Canada, surpassed only by Toronto ($2,254) and Etobicoke ($1,941).
That means that in the past five years, the average rent for a newly-listed one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver has increased by $706, or approximately 36.6 per cent, from 2019 to 2024.
Rentals.ca uses data from vacant units on its Network of Internet Listings Services (ILS) to reflect current market trends. Rental units listed for over $5,000 or under $500 were removed.
