Over the past two years, there has been an ongoing decline in rental costs in Metro Vancouver, and now the provincial government is taking some credit for the decrease in rent.
But should it be?
Last week, Daily Hive Urbanized reported that the average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Vancouver has decreased by nearly $500 since 2023. The day after, the B.C. Ministry of Housing released a statement.
“Yesterday, Rentals.ca released a report indicating that rental asking prices in British Columbia are down 8.5 per cent over the past two years, and 5.5 per cent in the past year alone. Vancouver led with [the] largest drop in the country at 16.9 per cent in the past two years and 8.2 per cent in the past year. Vancouver is at a 41-month low, and one bedrooms are down $500 a month since 2023,” the ministry said.
B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle offered some of her own comments, suggesting that the government’s actions have led to the decrease.
“In the past two years, we’ve taken unprecedented action to deliver more homes for people and tackle speculation. Our housing action plan is having an impact, with vacancy rates rising and asking rents consistently dropping,” Boyle said.
She continued, “B.C. has set a record high number of rental housing starts over the past three years, cut red tape to allow more duplexes, triplexes and townhomes, and fought speculation and reined in runaway short-term rentals, to deliver thousands of homes.”
Boyle added that there’s still more work to be done to ensure affordability for residents.
We asked Keaton Bessey, a local tenant and property manager, about his take on what Boyle and the ministry had to say.
“Any action the government has taken in the last two years to ‘deliver more homes for people and tackle speculation’ would be only on the speculation side of the equation,” Bessey told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“Odd, however, that nearly two years to the day, looking back, five-year fixed rates were at their cyclical high, and they have come down ever since. Unless she is talking about somehow purposefully increasing inflation on housing to make the lower rates less attractive for investors, or putting a stop to massive immigration (which I see is not mentioned at all in the statement), they cannot claim anything in that sentence.”
Bessey also addressed Boyle’s comments about red tape.
“The provincial government has taken steps to allow for cutting red tape for multiplexes, but those projects are only beginning to get off the ground. This is in the realm of a couple thousand units, last time I checked, which makes up around 0.2 per cent of the entire housing stock in Metro Vancouver. While I support the policy, it’s nothing to brag about on a federal level with no involvement.”
Bessey did say that the federal government could take some credit for rental declines in the Metro Vancouver region due to changes in CMHC’s financing “to spur rental construction.”
He suggests the primary causes of lower rents are fairly obvious, which the Province failed to mention.
“On the demand side, the sharp changes in immigration policy have definitely reduced demand–as well as speculation. Curious as to why neither of these were mentioned in the statement. If they wanted credit, take it where it’s due–and blatantly obvious. If she’s just being a politician, fine. If this is honestly what she thinks, the housing office has a lot to learn about the Vancouver and B.C. housing markets.”
š»Vancouver Asking Rents š
Down 6.4% YoY in September.Last 4 YoY changes in September below:
2024: -11.0% š½
2023: +10.1% š¼
2022: +20.2% š¼š„
2021: +11.0% š¼Anecdotes:
We’ve had two calls from Landlords this week who sound terrified about their vacant units. One just needsā¦ pic.twitter.com/NjViCdXWXKā Keaton Bessey (@kbessey) October 7, 2025
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