Between April and May, the portion of income Metro Vancouver residents have dedicated to their rent has decreased.
The data comes from rentals on the liv.rent listing platform.
In a new report, liv.rent states that the average income-to-rent ratio in April was 61.65%, which fell to 52.75% in May.
Liv.rent attributes the change in income required of Metro Vancouver residents to get into rental housing to a decline in rent prices.
Despite the decrease, liv.rent says the ratio “is well above the recommended budget and signals that many Metro Vancouver renters are spending far more than they should on rent.”
“Compared to the past two years, rental demand seems to have dropped; thus, more inventory is available in the market, which has led landlords to price more competitively in recent weeks.”
According to liv.rent’s listings, in May, the average unfurnished one-bedroom unit dropped $9 from April to a new average of $2,367.
Liv.rent also found that based on data from listings on its platform, rent for one-bedroom unfurnished units is only up 2.3% year over year compared to last May, amounting to an average $49 increase compared to the previous year.
The rental platform also broke down average rent by neighbourhood, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, downtown is right at the top of the list, followed by Kitsilano and Fairview.
liv.rent
Looking at the breakdown by city, “West Vancouver had the highest average rent prices for one- and two-bedroom unfurnished units this May,” liv.rent states.
Does your housing situation resonate with liv.rent’s findings? Let us know in the comments.