Rental prices in Metro Vancouver have continued on their upward trend leading into March according to new insights from liv.rent.
In its March 2022 Metro Vancouver Rent Report, the online rental platform said that average rent prices continued on their “unrelenting upward trend,” for March.
Rental prices for one-bedroom, unfurnished units have risen to $1,856, up $16 from February when prices for the same property type cost $1,840. Out of the past six months, liv.rent says that only one month saw prices drop on the aggregate, when there was a $4 decline from December to January.
“Once again, most of the major price increases came from outside Vancouver itself, where rent prices remained largely the same this month,” said the monthly market report. “Areas like Langley, Coquitlam and North Vancouver saw comparatively significant gains this month, particularly for unfurnished, one-bedroom units.”
As of March, the average rent per square foot in Metro Vancouver is $2.52. Vancouver reported the highest RPSF at $3.41, while Langley had the lowest at $1.72.
Surrey currently has the least expensive unfurnished one-, two- and three-bedroom rentals in the region, which cost $1,449, $1,966 and $2,449 a month, respectively.
For furnished rentals, your money will stretch farthest in Langley, where one-bedroom rentals cost $1,526. Surrey has the cheapest two-bedroom rentals in the furnished category at $2,105, and New Westminster has the lowest three-bedroom rentals at $2,280.
For March, unfurnished homes reported more significant changes in price compared to their furnished counterparts, with the most intense fluctuations coming from outside of the downtown Vancouver area.
One-bedroom unfurnished rental homes in Langley, North Vancouver and Coquitlam were up 14.52 per cent, 8.77 per cent and 7.64 per cent between February and March. Meanwhile, the same property type saw rents drop 5.61 per cent and 7.78 per cent month-to-month in Burnaby and West Vancouver.
Furnished one-bedroom rentals were up 7.34 per cent and 4.58 per cent monthly in Richmond and North Vancouver. Prices in Burnaby for the same property type were down 10.3 per cent monthly and 6.09 per cent in Langley.
If you’re looking for a one-bedroom furnished rental in Metro Vancouver, expect to pay $221 more per month with an average price of $2,077 compared to $1,856 for the unfurnished version.
Vancouver continues to rank as the most expensive rental market in Canada for unfurnished one-bedroom units, beating out Victoria and Toronto.
