North Vancouver just became Canada's most expensive city to rent
In a post-pandemic world, Vancouver has been the most expensive city in Canada for some time, commanding higher rental prices than even Toronto. But now, a new city has taken the lead – and it’s right across the harbour.
According to the latest rent report from liv.rent, North Vancouver is officially the most expensive city for renters in Canada.
“Metro Vancouver’s average rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit has risen sharply, up to $2,317 this November,” liv.rent told Daily Hive.
Average rent across Metro Vancouver
“North Vancouver has become Canada’s most expensive city to rent in this month after a 10.44% price increase for unfurnished, one-bedroom units,” it said.
The average rent is a whopping $2,760 a month.
Metro Vancouver’s rental averages
Paula Azevedo, a rental expert at liv.rent, said that the biggest factors leading to increased prices are linked to increasing interest rates.
“Different from other provinces, BC is known for the lack of positive cash flow opportunities when it comes to investment properties,” she said. “Investment landlords are most likely putting some money out of their own pockets towards their rental properties even when it’s rented.”
“Since interest rates more than doubled in the last five months, landlords have no alternatives but to increase their rental prices to be able to cover some of the costs associated with a rental property,” she said.
For renters looking to move soon, Azevedo says it’s important to focus on having an “amazing application package” complete with good credit history and great references.
“Once you have that, landlords might be willing to negotiate from 5 to 10% discounts if they think they’ll be renting to the right tenant.”
“Also, utilize liv.rent’s ‘create listing alert’ feature to get notified when new listings come up so you can be the first to put in an offer for rent,” she said.
Most expensive cities in Canada
After North Vancouver, the most expensive cities in Canada for renters are West Vancouver, Vancouver, and Richmond.
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