Vancouver rent just saw its first annual increase in nearly three years
Vancouver rent has seen declines for 34 consecutive months, but it looks like that trend might be abating.
Rentals.ca and Urbanation released their latest National Rent Report, looking at rental trends across the country. Despite the national average asking rent decreasing by 3.2 per cent year-over-year, Vancouver bucked the trend.
The report reveals Vancouver actually increased in October year-over-year, for the first time in nearly three years.
Average Vancouver rent was $2,754 in October 2026, a 0.6 per cent increase from the same month last year. Toronto also saw a similar trend, with average rent increasing by 1.3 per cent year-over-year.
“The window for cheaper rents is closing in Toronto and Vancouver,” said Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation, in a press release. “Rents in Canada’s two largest cities are starting to rise for the first time in nearly three years.”
Giacoma Ladas, the communications director for Rentals.ca, told Daily Hive Urbanized that Vancouver rent rose “mainly because supply is starting to tighten.”
“There are fewer available listings coming onto the market, and that reduced inventory is putting upward pressure on asking rents,” he said in an email.
However, renters in Calgary, Edmonton, and most of Ontario (outside of Toronto) still see rents declining.
Rent is still falling for smaller units
However, the increase in Vancouver rent is coming from the cost of larger units.
“Its one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents are still below year-ago levels,” reads the report from Rentals.ca.
Rentals.ca reported that Vancouver average asking rent for a one-bedroom unit in October was $2,377, a 0.1 per cent increase from September but a three per cent decrease from the year before.
The average asking price of a two-bedroom unit remained unchanged both month-over-month and year-over-year, with an asking average of $3,270.
Where is the story of Vancouver rent at?
Ladas told Daily Hive that it is “hard to predict with certainty” whether Vancouver rent will keep climbing.
“That said, if supply continues to decline, we would expect that to support further rent growth. At the same time, we are heading into the fall and winter, which is typically a slower rental season, so that could moderate the pace of increases in the months ahead,” he said.
Vancouver’s rent prices peaked in September 2023, when the average asking rent in the city was $3,335.
Renter demand outpaced supply due to the fact that Canada has a decades-long undersupply of purpose-built rentals and, at the same time, was experiencing unprecedented population growth.
Rent prices have softened since then because the federal government has reversed the demand by limiting population growth, while also increasing incentives to bring in new purpose-built rentals to boost supply.