The rental vacancy rate has eased slightly across all of Metro Vancouver, partly driven by a jump in vacancies in New Westminster, according to new annual data released November 28 by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
The federal housing agency said that vacancies in New West over the past year have risen to 1.6 per cent of total rental housing stock, up from 1.1 per cent in fall 2017.
However, despite the increased supply, average rents in the city continued to rise well above inflation, as the high-priced new apartments coming on stream pushed average rents upwards.
The average rent in the city was reported as $1,206 this year (all apartments), up a whopping 8.1 per cent from one year previously. One-bedroom rents were up 8.3 per cent to $1,109, while two-beds rose 7.5 per cent to $1,476 on average.
Outside of New Westminster, Burnaby saw rates ease dramatically from 0.7 to 2.0 per cent, with a host of new-build apartments coming on stream, particularly in Metrotown. North Vancouver (District), West Vancouver, Richmond and Delta also saw slight vacancy rate increases this year. This eased Metro Vancouver’s overall vacancy rate to 1.0 per cent, from 0.9 per cent a year ago.
Vancouver, on the other hand, saw vacancy rates drop from 0.9 per cent to 0.8 per cent this year. Surrey joined Vancouver in a tightening rental market, dropping to a very low 0.4 per cent, compared with 0.6 per cent last year. Surrey has recently seen the launch of the first new rental purpose-built building in the city in more than three decades.
The CMHC said that a strong Metro Vancouver economy and the high cost of entry-level homeownership is fuelling rental demand.
Check out the full Metro Vancouver report to see vacancy rates and rental prices by neighbourhood.
