This surprising city is Canada's most in-demand rental market
If you’re thinking about ditching the big city for a change of scenery, there’s one Canadian city that’s especially popular with renters right now.
A new report has ranked Moncton, N.B., as the most in-demand rental market in Canada.
RentCafe.com, a rental search website, analyzed its rental listing data across 25 Canadian cities over the second quarter of 2026, then ranked them on a “city-level rental interest score,” looking at rental availability, page views, favourites, and saved searches.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, Moncton came out on top, this time with a perfect score of 100.00.
It’s not hard to see why renters from near and far might be interested. Just on RentCafe.com alone, there are currently 338 apartments listed in the city, with studios starting at $825, one-bedroom apartments at $933 and two-bedroom units as low as $1,117.
Those prices are a steal, especially for people currently in much pricier markets like Toronto or Vancouver.
The report states that page views for Moncton rentals jumped 18 per cent year-over-year, while favourited listings rose 26 per cent. At the same time, rental availability fell 25 per cent from the same quarter last year, as renters continued to scoop up units faster than property managers could relist them.
And while New Brunswick residents showed a lot of interest, the most searches for Moncton rentals came from people in Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto.
Although Moncton is significantly smaller than those cities, it’s been growing steadily. According to Moncton Impact, its population reached about 102,378 in 2025 (it was 98,727 in 2024), and there are roughly 1.3 million people living within a 2.5-hour drive.
Interestingly, smaller and mid-sized cities dominated the RentCafe.com top 10 list. Even Vancouver, which has a population nearly six times bigger than Moncton’s, didn’t generate nearly as much rental interest in Q2, ranking 13th overall. It was, however, the highest-ranking major Canadian city on the list.
Here’s a look at the top 10 most in-demand rental markets in Canada right now:
Rentcafe.com
There were some big movers, too.
Kitchener, Ont., had the biggest jump, climbing 12 spots to land at #7 with a score of 57.76 and making its debut in the national top 10.
Meanwhile, another Ontario city went in the opposite direction. Kingston dropped nine spots to #12, with a score of 47.64.
But Ontario still came out on top when it came to provinces with the most in-demand rental markets, with four cities in the top 10: Hamilton, Windsor, Kitchener, and London.
British Columbia followed with two cities: Victoria and Nanaimo.
Alberta, meanwhile, missed the top 10 for the second quarter in a row. Edmonton landed at #16 and Calgary at #17 as they both continue to “absorb record levels of new apartment supply.”
To learn more, you can read RentCafe.com’s full report on its website.