At the start of this year, the federal government announced a newfangled cap on international student permits, a move that they said would help ease pressure on housing, amongst other services. The cap seems to be having the desired effect — according to a new report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation, the rate of annual rent growth in Canada has slowed to its lowest level since October 2021.
The report, released Wednesday, shows that asking rents across all residential property types in Canada came in at $2,193 in September, and that figure marks a rise of just 2.1% year over year. In August, that same metric clocked in at 3.3%.
September was the fifth straight month (since May) to see the pace of annual rent inflation slow, the report says. “However, average asking rents were 13.4% higher than two years earlier and 25.2% higher than three years earlier during COVID-19.”
Urbanation President Shaun Hildebrand notes that foreign student enrolments have dropped off “by roughly a half from their record highs,” and that the effects have been felt most in Ontario and BC.
As Hildebrand points out, asking rents in Ontario slipped the most dramatically in September, with a 4.3% year-over-year decline to an average of $2,380 recorded. Meanwhile, in BC, rents came down 3.2% annually to $2,570. Even so, average rent in BC continued to be the highest of any other Canadian province.
“Rent declines for apartments in Ontario and BC occurred across all unit types, with BC rents down the most for one-bedroom units (-4.9% to $2,273) and Ontario rents falling fastest for two-bedroom units (-4.9% to $2,619),” the report says.
Wednesday’s report also zooms into municipal markets, and the data reveals that average asking rents have slipped, year over year, across Canada’s four largest markets.
In particular, rents in Vancouver fell for the tenth straight month in September, with a 9.5% decrease year over year. In Toronto, rents fell for the eighth straight month, with an 8.1% decrease recorded. “In Toronto, average apartment rents fell to a 25-month low of $2,668, while Vancouver rents for apartments remained highest in the country at an average of $3,023,” the report says.
Looking at specific unit types, the data shows that rents fell the most for one-bedroom units in Vancouver and Toronto, with respective declines of 11.4% and 7.8% recorded, to $2,673 and $2,418. Conversely, three-bedroom apartment rents “performed best” in September across all six of Canada’s largest markets, Wednesday’s report says.
