The price of renting in Kelowna, B.C., has reached an unwanted new high.
According to the website Rentals.ca, a one-bedroom apartment in the city now goes for $2,003 a month. That’s up from 21.5 per cent one year ago, when one-bedroom apartments were roughly going for $1,650 a month.
The price of renting a two-bedroom apartment in the largest city in B.C.’s Interior also rose. That price is now $2,421 a month.
“Rents continued to surge across Canada during October, rising 11.8 per cent year over year to an average of $1,976 across all property types,” said Rentals.ca.
“Rents charged last month were an average of $209 per month higher than in the same month a year ago ($1,767) and $130 per month (7 per cent) higher than the pre-pandemic high in October 2019 ($1,845).”
It added that “the latest annual increase for rents was more than double the annual increase in average hourly wages of employees in Canada at 5.6 per cent, as reported by Statistics Canada for October.”
Last October, another online company that reports on rent prices listed Kelowna’s one-bedroom cost at $1,610, with two bedrooms going for $2,180.
This month, in its Canadian rent report, Zumper listed the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Kelowna at $1,960, with a two-bedroom going for $2,410.
Zumper says Kelowna is the fifth-most expensive place to rent in Canada, with Vancouver first ($2,500 and $3,500), Toronto second ($2,130, $2,680) and Burnaby ($2,100, $2,980) and Victoria ($2,100, $2,630) tied for third.
Of Canada’s largest cities, Zumper listed St. John’s, N.L., as having the cheapest rent, with one-bedroom apartments going for $890 and two bedrooms listed at $1,000.
For Zumper’s Canadian rent report, visit the Zumper website.
For Rental.ca’s list of national rankings, visit Rentals.ca.