If it wasn’t already phenomenally expensive to find housing in Vancouver, it’s now even more costly for people looking for rental properties in the area. Rents are increasing throughout Canada without any sign of letting up..The March report by rentals.ca says the average monthly rent for Canadian properties on their website in February was $1,820. This amounts to an increase of 6.2% annually, up from $1,714 in February of 2021..Average rents in Canada peaked at $1,954 in August of 2019, the average rate declined to a low of $1,676 per month in early 2021 before recovering to the low $1,800s this year..Unsurprisingly, Vancouver, BC, dominates the country’s rent bill charts. The city showed a year-on-year rental increase of 14.7% for a one-bedroom unit to $2,239 per month. Two-bedroom units were up a whopping 17.6% to $3,050 per month..Torontonians are looking at similarly expensive rental expenses. A one-bedroom apartment will cost city-dwellers $2044 every month, up 12.68% from last year, and two bedrooms will set you back a stinging $2778 per month, an increase of 15.13% on last year..By contrast, the three least expensive places to live in Canada, according to the February report, are all in Alberta: Red Deer, Grand Prairie and Lloydminster. Lloydminster’s average rent for a one-bedroom apartment comes in at a more affordable $739 per month, a decrease of 6.57% from last year..“Single-family homes maintained the highest average monthly rent among these property types at $2,658 per month, experiencing an annual increase of 11.7% from the previous year’s average of $2,380 per month. Month-over-month, the average monthly rental rate has more or less stayed the same, moving from $2,652 in January 2022 to $2,658 per month in February 2022,” the report said..The report said it should be noted rentals above $5,000 a month and below $500 a month are not included in the data..Amanda Brown is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.abrown@westernstandardonline.com.,.Twitter: @WS_JournoAmanda
