{"id":27374,"date":"2026-03-11T10:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=27374"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:09:47","slug":"average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/03\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Average Rents Down 4.9% in BC, Condos Saw The Steepest Decrease in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Canada\u2019s average asking rent has reached a new bottom, tumbling 2.8% year-over-year in February, helping to restore affordability to levels not seen in years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rents have declined on an annual basis for the 17th consecutive month, falling by 1.3% from January to February, according to the latest data from Rentals.ca and Urban Nation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Over the past two years, rents have fallen by 7.4% from February 2024, but remain 2.3% higher than in February 2023.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Average rents for all unit types continued to fall across the most populous provinces, down 4.9% in BC, 4.7% in Ontario, 4.6% in Alberta and 3.1% in Quebec. Manitoba was the most populous province to see an increase in average asking rents (+1.3%).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, rents rose month-over-month in the key markets of Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Wages Come More Into Balance with Rent Prices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As rents continue to soften and average wages show moderate gains, the affordability of rent as a percentage of renter household income has continued to improve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The average rent in February accounted for 29% of average renter household income, down from 31% a year ago and 34% two years ago, and below the standard 30% affordability benchmark.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhile asking rents remain above pre-pandemic levels, wage gains have outpaced asking rent increases over a six-year period, resulting in an overall improvement in affordability for Canadian renters,\u201d reads the report.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>North Vancouver Remains Most Expensive Rental Market<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With a slight increase in apartment asking rents compared to January, North Vancouver ($2,926) remained the most expensive rental market in the country last month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other BC markets in the top five (excluding the six largest markets) were Richmond ($2,558), Burnaby ($2,511) and Coquitlam ($2,491). The most expensive rental market in Ontario (other than Toronto) was Pickering ($2,633).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Halifax ($2,268), the most expensive market in Atlantic Canada, continued to rise in the national list, overtaking Kingston ($2,254) and East York ($2,243).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the most affordable large cities (top 25 most populous) in the country were Regina ($1,379), Saskatoon ($1,441) and Quebec City ($1,447).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Condo Rents Slide Further<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Condos once again saw the steepest decrease in asking rents across property types, falling 5.1 year-over-year to an average of $2,082. Other secondary market units fell 4.5% annually to an average of $2,009, while purpose-built rental apartments remained the most resilient, down 1.9% from last year to an average of $2,030.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One-bedroom rents decreased 3.5% to an average of $1,781, while three-bedroom units remained the only unit type to register rent growth, with rents rising 0.6% annually to an average of $2,486.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Rent Per Square Foot Remains Flat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Average asking rent per square foot remained flat year-over-year at $2.53, but declined 4.2% from February of 2024, when asking rents averaged $2.64 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the past two years, the average size of rental units has fallen 6.3% to a low of 826 sf.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/realestatemagazine.ca\/canada-turns-a-corner-on-rent-affordability-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Report : Canada Turns A Corner on Rent Affordability<\/a> by REM Real Estate Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s average asking rent has reached a new bottom, tumbling 2.8% year-over-year in February, helping to restore affordability to levels not seen in years. Rents have declined on an annual &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/03\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-updates","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Average Rents Down 4.9% in BC, Condos Saw The Steepest Decrease in Canada &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/03\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Average Rents Down 4.9% in BC, Condos Saw The Steepest Decrease in Canada &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Canada\u2019s average asking rent has reached a new bottom, tumbling 2.8% year-over-year in February, helping to restore affordability to levels not seen in years. Rents have declined on an annual &hellip; [read more]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rory Clipsham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rory Clipsham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"headline\":\"Average Rents Down 4.9% in BC, Condos Saw The Steepest Decrease in Canada\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-11T17:10:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":460,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Market Updates\",\"Real Estate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/average-rents-down-4-9-in-bc-condos-saw-the-steepest-decrease-in-canada\\\/\",\"name\":\"Average Rents Down 4.9% in BC, Condos Saw The Steepest Decrease in Canada &#8226; 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