Canada’s average rent hit new record in May: report

The average rent in Canada broke a new record in May according to a report released Thursday, rising above $2,200 a month for the first time.

The new report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation found that asking rents averaged $2,202 in May, up 9.3 per cent year-over-year and 0.6 per cent month-0ver-month.

The national average for an apartment in May was $2,146, and $2,312 rent for a condominium.

Vancouver is listed as having the highest rent in the country for a one bedroom apartment, sitting at $2,671 on average, followed by Burnaby, B.C., at $2,545, and Toronto at $2,479.

2:46 Ontario tenant owes more than $22K after he stopped paying rent

The national average asking price for a one-bedroom was $1,927 in May, up 10.7 per cent from a year ago. The average asking price for a two-bedroom unit was $2,334, up 12.1 per cent.

Asking rents for purpose-built rental apartments in May increased 13.7 per cent compared with a year earlier to reach an average of $2,146, four times the rate of growth of condominium-apartment rents, which averaged $2,312, up 3.4 per cent.

The asking rents for purpose-built and condo-apartments was up 10.6 per cent year-over-year.

Alberta had a 17 per cent year-over-year increase in asking rents for apartment and condos, at $1,787, while Atlantic Canada had a 15 per cent increase from last year to sit at $2,067. B.C. had a two per cent increase and is at $2,526, while Ontario had a one per cent increase to be at $2,423.

B.C. had the highest asking rents, followed by Ontario.

In April, Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News showed that four in five Canadians (80 per cent) now feel that owning a home is only for the rich. That’s 11 points higher than a similar poll from over a year ago in March 2023.

— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Craig Lord.