Edmonton slips in new national ranking as renter interest wanes
Renter interest in Edmonton is on the decline, with a new report showing the city dropping out of the top 10 nationally for the first time in a while.
Moncton, N.B., holds the top spot in Rent Cafe’s Canada renter interest ranking for the third straight quarter as renter demand snapped back from the winter lull.
RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent throughout Canada.
To compile this report, the research team analysed RentCafe.com’s rental listing data across 25 Canadian cities with a relevant listing inventory sample. The regions are defined according to Statistics Canada.
To score each city, it tracked year-over-year changes across four metrics, ranked the cities based on those results and tracked how each city’s position changed from the previous quarter.
Edmonton ranked #12 nationally with a score of 51.78, slipping out of the top 10 after holding a spot there for several consecutive quarters. The city remains a key rental market in Western Canada, although renter engagement softened year-over-year.
Page views declined 55 per cent and favourited listings fell 25 per cent, suggesting that renters have become more selective in their search.
Saved searches also decreased 51 per cent with fewer renters actively tracking listings.
“Even with these declines, Edmonton remains a top destination for renters seeking more affordable alternatives in Western Canada. Besides locals, most renters’ interest in apartments in Edmonton comes from Calgary and Vancouver,” Rent Cafe noted.
Our friends down in Calgary also saw a decline in interest, slipping five positions to rank #20 nationally with a score of 41.45. Online activity cooled as new supply gave renters more options.
Availability rose 13 per cent year-over-year — the largest increase among Canada’s biggest cities, thanks to a wave of recently completed apartment buildings putting new units on the market.
Page views fell 58 per cent, while favourited listings dropped 35 per cent and saved searches fell 58 per cent, as renters faced less urgency in a market with more available apartments.
“Following a period of strong momentum, renter interest in Calgary appears to have softened. Even so, the city continues to attract apartment-hunters seeking lower costs and a stable local economy relative to other large Canadian markets,” Rent Cafe added.
Notably, Alberta did not place any cities in the top 10 for the first time in more than a year. Edmonton (#12) and Calgary (#20) eased as new supply caught up. According to Yardi data, both cities now have Canada’s highest apartment vacancy rates, even as Alberta posted one of the country’s strongest interprovincial migration rates last year.
You can view the full renter interest report online.