Two separate rental analyst websites have placed the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom in Victoria right around $2,000 in March 2023.
Zumper places the average rent right at $2,000, while Rentals.ca has the rent slightly higher at $2,006.
Similarly, the two sites landed on similar numbers for two bedrooms, with Zumper saying the average rental was $2,540, and Rentals.ca giving a figure that’s $4 more expensive.
This places Victoria at the fourth spot for most expensive rentals in Canada out of 23 cities studied by Zumper, and 11 out of 35 cities for Rentals.ca.
Both reports have Vancouver in the top spot, followed by Toronto in the second spot.
For Victoria, Zumper cites March’s number for one-bedrooms as a 2.9 per cent decrease month over month, but 13 per cent increase compared to the year before.
Rentals.ca, on the other hand, shows Victoria’s rental prices increasing by 0.3 per cent from the month before, and up 7.9 per cent from the year before.
Nationally, Rentals.ca says average prices rose by one per cent.
“Spring arrived with a highly competitive rental market in Canada, driven by a record population increase of over 1 million people in the past year and low homeownership affordability after last year’s spike in interest rates,” said Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation, which is a Toronto-based real estate firm that wrote the rent report.
“With supply unable to keep up with current levels of demand, expect further upward pressure on rents in the coming months.”
To determine average rent prices, Zumper analyzes rental data from active listings across the country from Zumper’s landlord platform, and third-party listings from multiple listing service providers. Rentals.ca uses numbers from the Rentals.ca Network of Internet Listings Services.
RELATED FROM FEBRUARY: Victoria one-bedroom rentals up 19 per cent since last year: report
Laura Brougham
