Vancouver rent still increasing for most residents, despite some prices dropping

While a number of recent reports have found that rent prices in Vancouver have gone down in the past year, a deeper dive into the rental data shows that many renters aren’t actually benefiting from the drop.

That’s because these declines in rents are at the higher end of the market, and often concentrated in new builds.

A report from Rentals.ca found that Vancouver rents fell by 16.5 per cent over the past three years, and another report found that the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $2,376 a month in February 2026, a 5.6 per cent decrease from February 2025.

But these reports are looking at vacant unit prices, which is just a single data point in the overall picture, explained Bryn Sadownik, Vancity Community Foundation’s (VCF) senior manager of research and evaluation. 

“Most people are not moving into a vacant unit. Most people are already renting somewhere,” she said.

In a blog post for VCF, she wrote that these decreases are “good news — but only if you are actively searching for a new rental, and only if you can afford to rent at the higher end of the market. These figures do not reflect what the vast majority of renters in B.C. are actually paying.”

Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s rental market survey found that the cost of renting in the purpose built rental market actually increased in 2025, going up by 2.2 per cent.

“When we talk about the average rent growth, average rent is including all the units … those that are already rented out, as well as those that are vacant to be rented out,” said Shiva Moshtari-Doust, CMHC’s lead economist for B.C.

CMHC’s survey looks at purpose-based rentals, which are mostly structures with three-plus units managed by rental operators. The condo rental market is also about a third of Vancouver’s market, which is often an individual who has purchased a unit and rents it out themselves.

Why did vacant units go down in price?

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Vacant units tend to fluctuate much more than what is happening in the market.

Moshtari-Doust said Rentals.ca reports are looking at asking rents advertised for vacant units, which dropped largely due to a slowdown in immigration and a weak labour market.

Federal immigration policy changes have reduced the number of non-permanent residents in the country, who tend to be renters. Younger people looking for entry-level jobs have struggled and thus have stayed in their current living situation (such as with parents or roommates) rather than looking for their own place.

At the same time, there’s also been a record level of housing completions in recent years, adding a surplus of new rentals to the market.

‘Tight demand’ for affordable housing

Even though rent prices in vacant units have gone down, they still tend to be much higher than in older units, where the more affordable rental options tend to be.

The softening rental market is “mainly for that mid to higher price point units that are particularly newer units that are taking longer to get leased up or experiencing decreasing asking rates,” said Moshtari-Doust.

“However, on that more affordable side, where units are older, there is a tight demand. There is a tight market. Vacancies are really low because rents are pretty low, too. If there is a long-term tenant in a unit, as an example, the rents only increase based on the maximum allowable for the province.”

In 2021, there were nearly 100,000 households in ‘core housing need’ in Metro Vancouver.

Someone is considered to be in core housing need if they pay more than 30 per cent of their income before-tax for housing, if it isn’t suitable for their needs (it doesn’t have enough bedrooms), or adequate (in need of repair).

“But generally, most people that are in core housing need are because they have housing that’s not affordable,” Sadownik said.

The biggest supply of new rental supply in the region is condos, which rent for 38 per cent more on average than purpose-built rentals. And even the average rent in a new purpose-built rental ($2,561 per month) is still unaffordable for 70 per cent of renter households, she added.

“For asking rents on Rentals.ca to become affordable to even half of renter households in the region, they would need to fall three times further than they already have,” Sadownik wrote.