It’s not a surprise to anyone apartment-hunting in Burnaby: the city has the second-worst rents in the country, according to a recent report.
Whether it’s a one-bedroom or two-bedroom, Burnaby beat Toronto by $6 for the most expensive average asking rent, according to the July 2023 rent report by Rentals.ca and Urbanation.
The average rent for a Burnaby one-bedroom is $2,578, a 27.2 per cent year-over-year increase. The average for a two-bedroom is $3,314, an 18.4 per cent increase over last year, making Burnaby rents among the fastest-rising in the country.
Burnaby rents come second only to Vancouver.
If renters are looking to move out of their rent-controlled apartment where they currently live, they could face a steep increase in their monthly living expenses.
One-bedroom apartments in Burnaby that are already rented and occupied are an average of $1,418, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data.
That means renters who sign a lease for a new apartment could pay about 81 per cent more than their current rent.
In the Vancouver area, asking rents for vacant units are, on average, 43 per cent higher than those paid for occupied units, according to CMHC’s rental report.
For a renter to pay the “affordable” standard of 30 per cent of their gross annual salary on the average Burnaby rent, they’d need to make almost $93,000 a year.
Average asking rents across Canada hit a record high of $2,042 in June, surpassing the previous November 2022 record of $2,024 by 0.9 per cent.
Over the past two years, according to Rentals.ca, average asking rents in Canada have increased by 20 per cent, an average of $341.
When it comes to purpose-built rental apartments and rental condos, Richmond, with an average asking rent of $2,974, has Burnaby beat by just $1 per month, with its average asking rent of $2,973. Coquitlam follows in fourth most expensive asking rent for condos and apartments, at $2,973.
The most expensive mid-sized market is affluent Oakville, Ont., at $3,230.
CMHC’s primary rental data only includes purpose-built rental apartments and rental townhouses. Rentals.ca covers the asking rates of available, vacant units only, reflecting on-going trends in the market, according to the report.
“This covers a smaller sample size but is more representative of the actual market rent a prospective tenant would encounter,” states the report.
