One Metro Vancouver city sees small rise in rent as others continue to drop
Most major Metro Vancouver cities saw a sharp drop in average asking rent in December, while one city saw a slight rise.
The latest Rentals.ca report was released this morning, and while Vancouver is still one of the most expensive places to find a home in Canada, another Metro Vancouver city sits atop the rental leaderboard, North Vancouver. The report, released today, looks at average asking rents and other insights from rentals on the Rentals.ca platform in December 2025.
The only Metro Vancouver city that saw a rent increase was Burnaby, which saw a 0.1 per cent increase for asking rents for one-bedroom units compared to November 2025, up to $2,199 per month in December. Despite the month-over-month increase, Burnaby saw a year-over-year drop of 7.1 per cent.
Just like we’ve seen in the past several Rentals.ca national reports, North Vancouver was the most expensive place to get a one-bedroom unit in December ($2,469), with Vancouver following behind ($2,391).
North Vancouver ($3,286) has also eclipsed Vancouver ($3,255) as the most expensive place to live in a two-bedroom unit.
Looking at annual rent decreases for apartments in major markets, Vancouver saw the steepest declines of all major cities, with a substantial 7.9 per cent drop to roughly $2,660 per month.
“Vancouver and Toronto apartment rents fell to their lowest levels since early 2022, recording two-year drops of 13.3 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively. The $155 per month (or 6.2 per cent) premium held by Vancouver apartment rents relative to Toronto was its smallest in more than three years,” Rentals.ca says.
Rentals.ca
The four most expensive cities to rent in outside of large markets like Vancouver and Toronto, based on average asking prices for purpose-built and condo rental units, were North Vancouver ($2,948), Richmond ($2,585), Coquitlam ($2,531) and Burnaby ($2,504).
Most Metro Vancouver cities in Rentals.ca’s report are above the national average rent of $2,060 per month.
“Rents declined for the 15th straight month, ending 2025 down 5.4 per cent over two years, but still 14.1 per cent above December 2019 levels,” Rentals.ca reports.