June

Metro Vancouver has highest rent in Canada

Posted In: Statistics by Gregor Anton

Living in The World’s #4 City is Pricey! According to the Georgia Straight, Metro Vancouver is the most expensive place in the country. Not to mention downtown Vancouver where I don’t recall seeing any two bedroom apartments below $1400.00.

The rent there is, in my humble opinion, outrageous. It’ll be interesting to see what will happen to the real estate and rental market after the 2010 Winter Olympics. Some people say it’ll boost the real estate market, others predict falling real estate prices, higher unemployment rates, and a higher rental vacancy rate. What do you think? Leave a comment!

One thing is for sure, with the increase in Vancouver’s population, we’ll see more small businesses. It’s common for small business owners to move to a world class city, often near water, and then set up a business.

Metro Vancouver has highest rent in Canada

By Carlito Pablo, Straight.com

Metro Vancouver has overtaken Calgary and Toronto as the most expensive place in the country to rent a two-bedroom apartment, according to figures released on June 10 by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

With an average monthly rent of $1,154 based on April 2009 data used by the CMHC, Vancouver is now at the top of the list of five metropolitan areas where average rents for these housing units are above $1,000. The others are Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, and Victoria.

CMHC figures show that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Vancouver area increased by 7.7 percent from $1,071 in April 2008.

In April of last year, living in a two-bedroom apartment in Calgary or Toronto was costlier than in Vancouver, with rates of $1,096 and $1,075, respectively.

Average rents for two-bedroom apartments in existing structures (as opposed to those that are newly built) in Canada’s 35 major centres increased 2.9 percent between April 2008 and April 2009, according to the CMHC.

The survey also showed that the average rental-apartment vacancy rate in these urban areas increased slightly, to 2.7 percent in April 2009 from 2.6 percent in April 2008.

The CMHC stated that the completion of condominiums that were either bought by previously renting households or by investors who then rented them out contributed to the increase in the vacancy rate.

In April of this year, the apartment vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver was 1.9 percent, one percentage point up from the figure of 0.9 percent in the same month last year.

In April 2009, Abbotsford had the highest apartment vacancy rate in British Columbia, at 4.8 percent. It had the third-highest vacancy rate in Canada, after Windsor and St. Catharines–Niagara in Ontario.