Victoria renters were left out of a national trend that saw asking rents decline for the first time in more than three years.
Average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada fell by 1.2% year-over-year in October, according to the latest National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.
The report found that Victoria recorded the ninth highest rents in Canada, with a one-bedroom fetching $2,151. That’s a 1 per cent decrease from the previous month but up 2 per cent from October 2023. A two-bedroom in the city is going for an average $2,866, up 1 per cent from the previous year.
"I would consider it more of an evening out," Giacomo Ladas, associate director of communications with Rentals.ca, said about Victoria rental prices. "It's not too much against the trend."
That trend has seen Vancouver rents drop 9.1 per cent over the past year. However, the city's one-bedrooms remain the priciest in the country at $2,610. Toronto also saw an 8.7 per cent decline, with one-bedrooms now going for $2,380, Canada's third-highest rents. Two-bedrooms were down 9.2 per cent in Vancouver and 9.7 per cent in Toronto.
Ladas said secondary markets have yet to see those types of decreases, pointing to Nanaimo where one-bedroom rents jumped 2.4 per cent to $1,835.
"Things have really slowed down in Victoria," said Ladas in reference to an 8 per cent drop in housing starts. "Supply coming onto the market isn't matching other parts of the country."
But Ladas sees better times on the horizon, as he expects to see a lower demand in the winter and more rental buildings coming on the market in years to come, placing downward pressure on rents.
"What happens in Vancouver and Toronto eventually permeates through the rest of the country."
Burnaby, coming in at No.2, saw a 9.4 per cent decline to a $2,398 average rent for one-bedrooms. It is the only other B.C. city with higher rent prices than Victoria.
Average rents across the country now stand at $2,152 per month, equating to a $49 monthly reduction since July.
“It is a rare occurrence for rents to decline at the national level. This is happening as the key drivers of rent growth in recent years – a strengthening economy, quickly rising population, and worsening homeownership affordability – are beginning to reverse,” noted Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand in the report. “As a result, we can likely expect this trend for rents to continue in the near term, particularly as apartment completions remain at record highs.”
The report found rent growth in Canada has been consistently slowing since the summer, with the latest decline representing a sharp reversal from the 9.3 per cent annual increase posted in May.
