If you were hoping that 2020 might be the year rental prices begin to cool down, you might want to look away.
According to data collected from the rental website PadMapper, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Victoria is $1,510 a month, up 8.6% from January 2019 rental rates.
The median price of a two-bedroom rose by an even steeper margin at 15.1%, driving average prices up to $1,830 a month.
The PadMapper Canadian Rent Report charts and analyzes rental data from hundreds of thousands of active listings across the country. Listings are then aggregated on a monthly basis to calculate median rents for the top 24 most populous metro areas. This provides a comprehensive view of the current state of the rental market.
See also: Rents in Canada are set to increase by 3% in 2020 (REPORT)
Despite the raises, Victoria actually dropped to sixth most expensive city in the overall PadMapper rankings from fourth place last year.
Unsurprisingly, Toronto tops the list as the most expensive city in Canada. The average price of a one-bedroom in the 6 is $2,300 a month. That’s quite a lot higher than the $810 a month you’d need for a typical one-bedroom flat in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
London, ON, saw the most drastic rise in prices — 15.7% from January 2019 to now. A one-bedroom apartment in that city costs $1,180 a month, on average.
Vancouver was the most expensive B.C. city listed, with an average one-bedroom price of $2,150 a month.
The good news for Victorians is that the city’s rates appear to be dropping from month-to-month. January 2020’s one-bedroom rates are a full 3.2% lower than what they were in December 2019.
Perhaps there are lower rent prices in the future … but don’t hold your breath.
