The average asking rent price in Canada hit $2,193 in February, marking a 21% increase compared to February 2022 — just before the Bank of Canada began its rate hike cycle.
In the last year alone, rent prices grew 10.5% across Canada, which represents the fastest annual growth since September 2023, says a new report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.
“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.”
The increase was led by a 14.4% annual jump in purpose-built rental apartments, which hit an average asking price of $2,110 in February. Condo apartments, on the other hand, saw a 5% year-over-year increase in asking rents, reaching $2,372.
Canada's priciest provinces — Ontario and British Columbia — saw the slowest growth in asking rents for both purpose-built rental and condo rental apartments over the past year, with increases of 1% and 1.3%, respectively. The most expensive cities within those provinces — Toronto and Vancouver — however, actually saw their average asking rents decline in February, falling 1.3% and 3.3%, respectively.
Alberta held its lead as the province with the fastest-growing rents in the country, seeing prices jump 20.4% year over year for one-bedroom apartments to an average of $1,531, and 18.8% year over year for two-bedroom apartments to an average of $1,886. Edmonton in particular led Canadian cities in price growth, with rents seeing an annual jump of 17.3%, reaching an average of $1,489.
On a month-over-month basis, rent prices were down in many markets across Canada, falling 0.1% on a national level. The biggest drops were seen in Burnaby one-bedroom rentals, with prices down 3.7% from January, and in Halifax two-bedrooms, with prices down 3.9% from the previous month.
Also of note is the fact that the number of listings for shared accommodations surged 72% in February compared to the same time last year, with the average asking rents for those same types of accommodations rising 12% to $1,010. This was led by substantial growth in BC (+13%) and Alberta (+12%).
