The City of Burnaby has Toronto beat for the second-worst rents nationwide when it comes to apartments and condos, according to a new report from Rentals.ca.
And Burnaby holds third place for Canada’s most expensive one-bedroom rents including all types of rental housing such as condos, apartments, townhouses and single-family homes, behind Toronto and, of course, Vancouver.
That said, when it comes to Canada’s most expensive mid-sized markets in Ontario and B.C., it’s actually Oakville that tops the charts with an average of $3,373 for purpose-built and condo apartments.
It’s because Oakville is one of Ontario’s most affluent communities, with quite a few old stock rental properties in the market, according to David Aizikov, senior data analyst for Rentals.ca. Oakville isn’t included in the major markets likely due to a lack of sample size.
The May report from Rentals.ca shows last month’s total average rent in Burnaby, for condos and apartments, was almost $2,900, second to Vancouver’s average of about $3,140. Toronto came in third at a little more than $2,800.
When it comes to total rentals, Burnaby’s one-bedroom average last month was $2,330, compared to Vancouver’s average of about $2,790 and Toronto’s of about $2,530.
When it comes to two-bedrooms, Burnaby is more expensive than Toronto with an average rent of $3,304, where Toronto’s is $3,286. Vancouver still has them both beat, with the average two-bedroom rent at $3,666.
Year over year, rent for three-bedroom apartments and condos in Burnaby increased by 52.4 per cent to $3,876, the highest of any change for any bedroom size.
The reports stated the annual rate of rent growth “should remain elevated due to record high population growth and low home ownership affordability.”
The Rentals.ca data comes from RentFaster and Rentals.ca, and is merged to include “probably the largest swath of rental listings in Canada that are accessible in any one place,” according to Aizikov.
The report notes it’s different than the rates in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., as 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.
CMHC’s average private apartment rent for Burnaby is $1,533.
