The cost of renting a home continued to steadily increase in March, as demand recovers from the previous pandemic-induced decline.
Nationwide, the monthly average for a rental apartment rose by 6.6% year over year to $1,818, according to the latest joint National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting. According to Bullpen, it's expected that rents will continue to rise as the country returns to normal, but it remains to be seen how inflation, supply chain issues, the effects of BA.2 and other sub variants of omicron -- not to mention recent Bank of Canada rate increases -- will impact the economy and the rental market.
“On an annual basis, tenants are looking at rent that is over $100 more on average in March, compared to a year earlier, when the rental market was close to its lowest point during the pandemic," says Ben Myers, President of Bullpen Research and Consulting. "However, the pace of growth has cooled, with relatively flat rents over the last four months. Higher interest rates and a cooling ownership housing market could push more demand into the rental market this spring.”
Vancouver took top spot of the 35 cities examined for average rental price growth, outpacing other Canadian cities in a 29.9% year-over-year increase to a high of $2,925.
Toronto, Canada’s largest city, had the second-highest average March rental rates: one-bedroom apartment rents in the city averaged $2,023 while a median two-bedroom rental unit came in at $2,776, increasing by 11% and 16.2%, respectively, year over year. However, compared to February of this year, average one- and two-bedrooms rental rates were down by 1% and 0.7%.
Rentals.ca
Impact of Pandemic Slowdown Still Evident in Toronto Core
Median rents comprising all property types in Toronto last month increased by 14.3% from March 2021, rising to $2,326. The report specified that the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed sequential, and months-long, average rental rate declines in the city through most of 2020 and into 2021, and last month’s median was still below pre-pandemic levels.
Rentals.ca
On a monthly basis, however, rents across much of downtown Toronto have been increasing on a monthly basis -- a contrast to 416 postal codes outside of the city’s downtown borders. Nevertheless, the report noted that Ontario continues being one of Canada’s most expensive provinces for rental rates, irrespective of property type, increasing by 10.8% year over year in March to $1,995. In fact, in Q1-2022 studio units across the province were, on a square foot basis, the most expensive type of rental housing, averaging $3.72 per sq. ft.
Rents Up Strongly Across the GTA
Municipalities across the Greater Toronto Area all ranked among the highest in terms of rent price growth.
Burlington was third-highest in Canada for average monthly rental rates in March: a one-bedroom averaged $2,017, increasing by 12.7% year over year and by 8.7% over February, while the city’s two-bedrooms, at $2,256, rose by 12.5% year-over-year, but declined by 1% from a month earlier. Still, one-bedrooms were a hair below Toronto’s rates, with two-bedroom dwellings not far behind.
Oakville, one municipality east of Burlington, saw its one-bedroom rental rates average $1,909 in March—sixth highest in Canada—an 8.7% increase year-over-year but 0.7% monthly decline. Two-bedrooms in Oakville rose by 11% year-over-year in March to $2,331, but fell by 3.7% from a month earlier.
Etobicoke’s one-bedroom units averaged $1,851 in March, increasing by 8.2% over the same month last year but dipped marginally by 0.5% month-over-month, while two-bedroom units averaged $2,334—a 9.4% year-over-year increase but a 4.8% decline from February of this year.
Mississauga, Canada’s sixth largest municipality, had Canada’s seventh highest rental rates for one-bedroom apartments in March—averaging $1,815, increasing by 4% year-over-year and 2.2% month-over-month—while two-bedroom units increased by 7.8% year-over-year and by 0.5% over February to $2,204.
Oshawa’s one-bedroom rentals averaged $1,657 in March, increasing by 18.7% from the same month in 2021, while two-bedrooms in the city rose by 1.2% to $1,908.
Ajax’s one-bedroom rental rates averaged $1,650 in March, growing by 2.4% and 2.6% year-over-year and month-over-month, respectively, however, at $1,908, Ajax’s two-bedrooms declined by 3.1% from March of last year and by 1.3% from this past February.
Brampton’s one- and two-bedrooms averaged $1,524 and $1,874, respectively in March, while Markham respectively averaged $1,512 and $2,134. Scarborough’s one-bedrooms averaged $1,482 in March and its two-bedrooms had a median rate of $1,945.
