These days, it’s hard to make a case for renting in Canada. Sky-high prices, tight competition, and meagre accommodations have become the status quo -- and meanwhile, move-in incentives are dwindling. In fact, there were fewer move-in promotions offered to renters in the third quarter of this year than in any quarter over the past two years. This is true of most Canadian markets, with the one exception being cities in the Prairie Provinces.
This is according to a September rundown of promotional deals and move-in incentives found on six rental sites of the Rentals.ca Network: Rentals.ca, Rentfaster.ca, RentBoard.ca, Louer.ca, TorontoRentals.com, and RentCanada.com.
In Vancouver, rent incentives are “almost non-existent” with just two current listings touting promotions of some kind. One rather frill-free listing in Kerrisdale offered one month of free rent on a one-year lease and two months free on a two-year lease. Another in central Vancouver offered half of a month free rent on a one-year lease, one-month free rent on a two-year lease, and a rental credit of $250 with the sign-up of a one-, two-, or three-bedroom unit.
Meanwhile, Toronto had the second-fewest rental incentives of all cities surveyed, with only seven listings documented. Of those listings, six offered one month’s worth of discounted rent and one rental at Yonge & Eglinton offered one month of free rent in addition to $1,700 in welcome bonuses. Additionally, most of the promotions were for older buildings.
Rentals.ca’s update also revealed that although Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg had a greater proportion of incentivized listings compared to Vancouver and Toronto, those four cities have also seen a drastic decline in promotional offers.
With growing demand and fierce competition for rental real estate, the factors that drove landlords to entice renters with promotions in the last few years have clearly subsided. Now, rental market conditions have shifted in favour of landlords and we are seeing proof of that in rapidly rising rents.
According to the latest National Rent Report by Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting, the average rent across all property types in Canada was $1,934 in July, marking a year-over-year increase of more than 10%. The median rental rate was also up year, rising to $1,799 per month in July. That figure was up from $1,750 in June and $1,649 in July 2021.
With those prices, every incentive counts!
