One-bedroom prices in Calgary up 26% from this time last year: report

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It’s been called a crisis and has drawn attention from politicians at all levels of government.

Now, the numbers from a newly released report seem to be backing the narrative about Calgary’s housing situation.

Recent data from rental platform Zumper shows that prices for rental homes in this city have, again, gone up.

On average, a one-bedroom apartment in Calgary now goes for $1,890, an increase of 26% from what it was at this time last year and an increase of 0.5% from the previous month.

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The report, which is released on a monthly basis, is conducted by aggregating data from more than one million active listings to calculate median asking rents for the top 100 cities by population and almost 300 additional cities within major metro areas.

A graph that shows the median price of rentals in Canada. (Zumper)

“16 Canadian cities saw one bedroom rent increase on a monthly basis, two remained flat and five were on the decline,” the report reads.

“With inflation at its highest since 1983 and a population spike, Canada continues to experience month after month of record breaking rents.”

At that price, the report says, Calgary is the largest growing rental market in the country on a year-to-year basis for one-bedroom apartments and comes in at number nine on the list of most expensive cities for those types of rentals.

The data shows a similar trend when it comes to two-bedroom apartments. Last month, the average cost was $2,200.

That number hasn’t changed this month, according to the report, but it’s a 29.4% price hike from this time last year.

The increase can be attributed to a number of things, according to Crystal Chen with Zumper.

Migration into Alberta was high last year due to the job market, she said, meaning that people were looking for places to rent.

The return of students to full-time learning on campus and renters who were potentially being priced out of other expensive cities looking for more affordable housing are also contributing factors.

“All this has created a market with high competition, which puts upward pressure on rent prices,” Chen said.

The data for the reports is sourced through a combination of proprietary listings posted by landlords and brokers through Zumper’s Landlord Platform and third-party listings received from MLS providers.

It also includes new constructions and excludes listings that are no longer available or are currently occupied.

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