Metro Vancouver rents rising after pandemic-fuelled decline

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It appears the days of getting a deal on rent may be limited, with new data finding there’s been a second consecutive month of rising rents for Metro Vancouver.

Rents have been falling steadily in Metro Vancouver during the pandemic, but the data from rental platform liv.rent suggests that trend is reversing.

An unfurnished one-bedroom rental now goes for an average of just under $1,700, according to the platform’s April rent report, which it’s sharing with NEWS 1130 in advance.

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Matisse Yiu with liv.rent tells us there are signs people are coming into the city after that initial exodus.

“We have started seeing an increase in rental rates in the past few months,” Yiu said. “It’s very interesting to us to see Vancouver as a very, very strong rental market that’s actually seeing rental rates recover and be quite stable.”

“One of the main things we’re looking at here is that we’re probably going to continue this incline, especially with the vaccine rollout coming in the summertime. And summertime is really our peak season for rentals,” she added.

Given there is a rent freeze in effect in B.C., the increase in the average rent prices would be attributed to the movement of renters between homes. Landlords are allowed to adjust what they charge for rent to new tenants.

Yiu points out the increases are still moderate and rents here didn’t fall as much as they did in some other markets, but there still are incentives for prospective tenants.

(Courtesy liv.rent)

“Now is a really, really good time to look around,” Yiu said, noting there still are deals to be had.

“With the incline that we’re seeing, this is probably going to be one of the lowest rates that you’re going to get, especially as summer rolls around. Typically, we do see continued increases April to August.”

However, Vancouver is a bit of an outlier. Yiu says rents are continuing to fall in both Montreal and Toronto.