spring rental report
It’s not surprising that there was little media coverage of the CMHC Spring Rental Report release given that it contained pages of tables and no concise summary of the results. Pretty dry reading and lots of page scrolling to find relevant information for Vancouver.
However, in a media release by CMHC announcing the report, the following summary states:
“An overall improving job market over the last year, in conjunction with new migrants coming to Canada’s major centres, are factors that are supporting rental demand in Canada,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “Immigrants, as well as young workers, usually tend to rent first and then move to homeownership.”
CMHC media release
The report indicates that Vancouver is continuing with the tread of low vacancy rates and increasing rental costs to tenants. In 2012, vacancy rates drop two tenths of a percentage point from 2011 to 2.6 from 2.8. Average rents went up as well, with studio apartments increasing from $839 to $855, one-bedrooms increasing from $934 to $965, two-bedrooms increasing from from $1,288 to $1,219 and three bedrooms having a minimal rise in rent of a buck from $1406 to $1407.
Vancouver has the ignoble distinction of being the most expensive city to rent a two- bedroom apartment in Canada. If you are looking for a deal on rent try Trois-Rivieres where a two-bedroom goes for $543 or Saguenay at $553 or consider the lovely Eastern Townships in Sherbrook at $581.
