Canada's four most expensive cities for renters are all in BC

Rental units in BC cities are commanding high rental prices, and according to Vancouver-based rental platform liv.rent, BC is home to the top four priciest cities for renters as of October 2022.

Vancouver isn’t top of the list, surprisingly. The most expensive city to rent in Canada is actually West Vancouver.

Vancouver follows in second place and is joined by North Vancouver and Burnaby to form the top four most expensive cities in Canada for renters.

liv.rent

According to liv.rent, a combination of people being priced out of Vancouver and a launch of new developments in Burnaby is partly responsible for the rental increases seen there.

Rental expert Paula Azevedo from liv.rent told Daily Hive what’s next for the region’s renters.

“Although rental prices didn’t decrease considerably from September to October, rental activity has diminished, she said.

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“We’re seeing the rentals-to-active listings ratio going down due to lower demand. However, the number of listings for rent is still noticeably low, which means vacancy rates are not an issue and landlords can set higher prices since there’s not enough inventory.”

The average rent across Metro Vancouver increased by $9 in the last month, and now the cost for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit is $2,256 on average in October.

liv.rent

And that expensive rent is causing people to spend more of their paycheque on housing.

“With inflation reaching 8.1% in June 2022 and rental prices rising to their highest price point in history, renters are clearly struggling to keep up with the high costs of living,” said Azevedo.

liv.rent

“In addition, the interest rate hike of 3.25% in early September pushed landlords to increase the rental rates; hence, creating this scenario of unaffordability where tenants are spending over 50% of their annual income towards rent.”

Vancouver renters, how much of your money is spent on housing?