Rent prices in Vancouver remain the highest across Canada’s biggest cities, according to the rental website Zumper‘s June rent report.
However, the data showed that rent prices in Vancouver for a one-bedroom apartment dropped last year.
The average cost of a one-bedroom place in Vancouver is $2,650 a month, which is down about two per cent year over year.
Vancouver was one of the cities in the top 10 priciest rental markets where the average cost of a one-bedroom decreased.
Other B.C. cities in the top 10 were Burnaby, Victoria and Kelowna.
Burnaby came third with one-bedroom rent declining 0.8 per cent to $2,470, while two-bedrooms remained flat at $3,150.
Victoria continued to rank as the fourth priciest with one-bedroom rent climbing 3.8 per cent to $2,180, while two-bedrooms jumped 4.1 per cent to $2,780, according to data collected by Zumper.
Kelowna was ranked seventh, with the average one-bedroom priced at $1,900, which was down 0.5 per cent month over month. A two-bedroom was down 3.3 per cent month over month to $2,320.
Thomas Davidoff, associate professor in the Real Estate and Strategy and Business Economics groups at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, told Global News it’s hard to measure how rents change based on online ads.
“My best guess is that we didn’t see much of a drop but it looks like it’s maybe not the runaway rent growth we’ve seen in prior years and that’s at least encouraging,” he said.
Davidoff said he does not see rent prices slowing down soon.
“I think it’s going to continue to be tough days ahead for renters,” he added.