Surprise, surprise.
Vancouver continues to see the country's highest median rents for both one and two-bedroom apartments.
Conducted by Padmapper.ca, the May report analyzes rental data from hundreds of thousands of active listings across the country. From there, listings are aggregated every month to calculate median asking rents for the top 24 most populous metropolitan areas.
While one and two-bedroom apartment rentals remained flat in Vancouver in April, both increased in price this month. One-bedroom rent increased 1.6 per cent to $1,930 and two-bedrooms moved up 2.7 per cent to $2,670.
Toronto continues to see the country's second-highest apartment rentals. One-bedroom rents increased 2.3 per cent to $1,790 and two-bedrooms inched up 0.4 per cent to $2,310.
Overall 16 cities saw rent prices increase, three remained flat, and five saw prices drop since last month.
Padmapper also notes that the majority of markets with increasing rates were in the top 10 most expensive cities: "This shift may be signalling a start to the reversal of the 2020 rental market trends. More Canadians may be considering moving back to expensive markets, to take advantage of low prices or in preparation of life returning to what it was like pre-pandemic as more vaccines become available, which would increase prices after a year of historic decreases."
Rent across Canada
Barrie, Ontario has surpassed Burnaby as the country's third-highest market, with one-bedroom rent jumping 4.8 per cent to $1,730, while two-bedrooms increased 0.6 per cent to $1,780.
Burnaby is now the fourth-highest market, though one-bedroom rent stayed flat at $1,700 and two-bedrooms actually grew 2.3 per cent to $2,250.
Victoria remains the fifth-priciest city in Canada. That said, B.C.'s capital city saw one-bedroom rent climb 3.2 per cent to $1,590 and two-bedrooms leap 5.1 per cent to $2,070.
The report is based on all data available in the month before publication. Any data that is reported does not include short-term or Airbnb listings.
