The cost of living keeps increasing and let’s face it, it’s looking much more realistic and economically savvy to live outside of our favourite cities than to actually live in them. Groceries have gotten expensive and so has rent.
In the latest National Rent Report, the average rent in Canada has jumped in all cities in the past year. According to Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting, the average rent increased by 21.9% on Rentals.ca since April of last year, 15.4% year over year, and 4.3% monthly.
“The 4.3 per cent increase in average asking rent from August to September is the largest monthly increase since Rentals.ca and Bullpen Consulting began publishing this report in 2018,” said Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting.
“Part of the increase is attributable to larger units on the market, and high-end building completions adding expensive listings, but rental demand has increased significantly with the continued interest rate hikes, falling ownership house prices, and changing post-pandemic preferences.”
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For one of our favourite and populated cities, Toronto, its average monthly rent in September for a one-bedroom sat at $2,474 and for a two-bedroom at $3,361. In September, on a year-over-year basis, a one-bedroom in Toronto was up 27.5% and up 27.7% for a two-bedroom. Month over month, came to 6.3% and was up 2.9% for a two-bedroom. As for its average rent, it increased by 31.2% year over year, sitting at around $2,855 in Toronto.
But believe it or not, Toronto didn’t come first when weighing out what Canadian city saw a larger increase. London, Ontario saw an increase of 33.1% year over year however its average rent still remains a couple of hundred dollars less than Toronto.
Heading over to the west, although Vancouver only saw a 29.3% increase, it was enough to put it at the top in terms of average rent pricing – $3,225.
Average annual rent is actually went up more than 20% in five more cities including Brampton at 25.4% to $2,374; Calgary to 24.1% to $1,770; York to 23.9% to $2,415; North York to 22.4% to $2,381 and Kitchener up to 21.3% to $2,100.
Though that may be overwhelming, four cities which saw the lowest increases in average annual rent in September were in Gatineau, up 2.3%; Fort McMurray, up 2.4%; Winnipeg, up 3.5% and Montreal, up 3.7%.
“A sign that the rental market pressure could start to ease is that pageviews per listing in September declined to about the average level from Q2-2020 to Q1-2022, before the interest rate hikes. Secondly, the rental market is seasonal, so demand is less in November through February,” states the report.
Though not comforting, still optimistic for those looking for units in the colder months.
For more information, you can read the full report here.
