On paper, seeing the price of the average one bedroom rental drop by more than five per cent year-over-year might sound good, but Vancouver is still the most expensive place to rent in the country.
That’s according to the latest data released by rentals.ca, which shows the average one bedroom in Vancouver has a going rate of $2,671 — down 5.6 per cent since June 2023, but up almost one per cent since May of this year.
The agency shared that across all kinds of rentals — studios to three bedroom homes — the average rental in Vancouver is going for $3,008.
“Asking rents for apartments in Vancouver and Toronto continued to decline on an annual basis in May, but by a lesser amount than in April,” the agency said in a release Friday. “Vancouver rents were down 4.1% from a year ago (compared to a 7.8% annual decline in April) to an average of $3,008.”
“Annual rent declines in Vancouver were largest for one-bedroom apartments (-5.8% to $2,684) and three-bedroom apartments (-8.3% to $3,828).”
However, Vancouver’s drop year-over-year is bucking the trend of the country. Canada’s average rental price tipped over into record-breaking territory, rentals.ca said.
“Average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada hit an all-time high of $2,202 in May, surpassing the $2,200 level for the first time.
“Asking rents rose 9.3% annually in May, maintaining the same annual growth rate as April and consistent with average annual growth of 9.1% during the past three years. Incorporating rent declines experienced during 2020 and 2021, the latest five-year average annual growth for asking rents was 4.7%.”
According to the rental platform, B.C. accounted for three of the top 10 most expensive cities in Canada, with Ontario making up the other seven.
Vancouver and Burnaby were number one and two, respectively.