In May, average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada skyrocketed to an all-time high of $2,202, surpassing the $2,200 mark for the first time, according to a newly released report.
The report indicates that asking rents rose 9.3% annually in May, maintaining the same growth rate as April and consistent with an average annual growth of 9.1% over the past three years. Including rent declines experienced during 2020 and 2021, the latest five-year average annual growth for asking rents was 4.7%.
Month-over-month, asking rents increased by 0.6% in May, consistent with the growth experienced in May of the previous year. This brought the latest three-month change in average asking rents back into positive territory with a gain of 0.4%.
Asking rents for purpose-built and condominium rental apartments increased by 10.6% annually in May, accelerating from a 9.3% annual pace in April to reach an average of $2,143. Specifically, rents for purpose-built rental apartments increased by 13.7% from a year ago, which was four times faster than the annual growth in condo rents of 3.4%. Condo rents, however, declined by 0.8% month-over-month to an average of $2,312, while purpose-built rents rose by 1.0% on a monthly basis to an average of $2,146.
During May, condo studios were the only housing type to record an annual decline in asking rents, decreasing by 0.7% to an average of $1,856. In contrast, purpose-built studios, which were priced lower on average at $1,615, experienced the fastest annual growth of 17.8%.
Across all provinces, apartment rents for purpose-built and condo rentals in May showed annual increases. Ontario saw a 0.6% gain after recording a 0.7% annual decrease in April, with rents reaching an average of $2,423. Meanwhile, apartment rent growth in British Columbia improved from a 1.6% annual pace in April to a 2.3% annual pace in May, with rents averaging the highest of all provinces at $2,526. Both Ontario and British Columbia recorded month-over-month rent increases in May of 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively.
Quebec was the only province to record a month-over-month decline in apartment rents during May, dropping by 0.6% from April to an average of $1,999. Nevertheless, asking rents in Quebec were still up by 6.7% from last year.
Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan continued to drive the majority of annual rent inflation for apartments in Canada. Nova Scotia saw rents increase by 17.1% to $2,238, Alberta by 17.5% to $1,787, and Saskatchewan by 21.4% to $1,334. All three provinces also saw rents rise by at least 2% on a month-over-month basis.
This information comes on the heels of the release of Food Banks Canada’s 2024 Poverty Report Cards, which highlighted that nearly half of Canadians (44%) feel financially worse off than the previous year.