Apartment and condo rents in B.C. have fallen more than 10 per cent over three years, the largest decline of any province, according to a new report.
The average asking rent for apartments and condos in the province was $2,371 in October, down 1.3 per cent from a year earlier and down 0.1 per cent from September, according to the national rent report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation released Thursday.
B.C. rents were down 10.2 per cent from three years earlier, just ahead of Ontario at 10 per cent, and down 7 per cent from two years earlier.
Despite the declines, the report said B.C. remains the most expensive province when similar unit types are compared.
By unit type, one-bedroom apartment and condo rents in B.C. fell 3 per cent to $2,062. Two-bedroom rents dropped 1.2 per cent to $2,654, and three-bedroom rents slipped 0.8 per cent to $3,302.
Across all property types, including houses and townhomes, the average B.C. asking rent was $2,407, down 1.3 per cent. Studio units saw the steepest provincial decline, down 3.5 per cent to $1,870.
One-bedroom rents fell from a year earlier in most B.C. cities in the report. Kamloops posted the steepest drop, down 6.4 per cent to $1,707, followed by Langley at 5.9 per cent and Coquitlam at 5.2 per cent.
Nanaimo was the exception, with one-bedroom rents up 5.6 per cent to $1,929.
In the Okanagan, Kelowna one-bedroom rents fell 1.8 per cent to $1,828. In Victoria, they dropped 1.5 per cent to $1,984.
Two-bedroom rents were mixed. They rose 1.8 per cent to $3,438 in North Vancouver and 0.9 per cent to $2,642 in Victoria. Kamloops saw the largest drop, down 5.4 per cent to $2,000, followed by Coquitlam at 4.9 per cent.
The province’s highest rents remain in the Lower Mainland. North Vancouver had the highest average asking rent among the 60 Canadian markets in the report, at $3,002 across all property types, and Vancouver ranked second at $2,754. Burnaby and Coquitlam ranked fourth and seventh, at $2,546 and $2,535.
There were signs the decline may be bottoming out in the province’s largest city. Vancouver apartment and condo rents rose 0.2 per cent from a year earlier to $2,735, ending a 34-month run of annual declines. The report said the increase was driven by larger units, while one- and two-bedroom rents in the city remained below year-ago levels.
Toronto also returned to annual growth, with rents up 1.6 per cent to $2,590, ending 32 straight months of declines. The report said Toronto and Vancouver were among the first markets where rents peaked in 2023, and the markets that peaked first are now the first to stabilize.
B.C. also posted the largest provincial drop in rents for shared accommodations, down 6.6 per cent to $1,013. Across B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, shared accommodation rents averaged $909, down 1.2 per cent.
Nova Scotia was the only province to post an annual increase in apartment and condo rents, up 5.6 per cent to $2,421. That average is higher than B.C.’s, but the report attributed it to a larger share of bigger and newly built units in Nova Scotia.
Nationally, the average asking rent for all property types was $2,036 in October, down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier. It was the 25th consecutive month of annual decline, but the smallest drop since February.
Purpose-built rentals held up best across the country, down 2.1 per cent to $2,040. Condo rents fell 5.5 per cent to $2,048, while houses, townhomes and other secondary-market units dropped 6 per cent to $2,016.
For existing tenants in B.C., the province caps annual rent increases at 2.3 per cent in 2026, and has set the 2027 limit at 2.2 per cent.
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