Vancouver is now the most expensive city in Canada for rentals, according to exclusive data from Zonda Urban.
The National Rental Report from Zonda Urban was released for Q4-2023 last week, and the west coast metro took top prize for eye-watering prices. Downtown rental rates in the fourth quarter of 2023 were the highest in Metro Vancouver at $5.20 per square foot, an eight per cent increase from Q3. Active concrete studio apartments averaged $1,900 while a three-bedroom unit of the same construction reached $4,331.
Prices continuing to climb out west
Metro Vancouver, Calgary and Kelowna were the only markets to experience an increase in per square foot rental rates, at 10.3, 2.8, and 0.4 percent increase, respectively. Also, rental rate increases on a percentage basis have been most notable in the Edmonton, Calgary and Metro Vancouver where year-over-year rates have increased by 12.7, 9.7 and 9.6 per cent, respectively.
While prices are still increasing, the best bet for renters in the western provinces is Edmonton. The Alberta city continued to record the lowest per square foot rental rates of all tracked rental markets in Canada despite experiencing notable rental rate growth over the past year.
Build-to-rent rental rates down slightly in the GTHA
Build-to-rent unit rates in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas declined modestly in Q4-2023, its current average of $4.20 per-square-foot per month is still near an all-time high. Vacancy increased by 1.6 per cent from 9.2 to 10.8 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter. Six new projects were launched during the quarter adding 1,539 new units to the market. Released inventory totals in the fourth quarter were similar to the previous quarter, where 1,539 were released.
Meanwhile in Ottawa, rental rates remained constant in the fourth quarter of 2023, maintaining the record high set in Q3. Overall vacancy continued to decline for the third straight quarter and dropped from 11.2 to 9.6 per cent at the end of 2023. This continued drop in vacancy is in part due to the lack of projects coming to the market as there were no new launches recorded for the fourth quarter.
However, 11 projects and approximately 1,500 units are projected to be added to the market by mid-2024. Zonda Urban anticipates vacancy for newly launched rental projects to be in the seven to nine percent range throughout 2024.
