Winnipeg rental market data
Vacancy in Winnipeg’s purpose-built apartments (buildings of three or more units) was 2.8% in CMHC’s October 2025 survey, up from 1.7% in October 2024. For units surveyed in both years, the average 2-bedroom rent went up 1.9%, a slower pace than the 5.3% of the year before. The two surveys behind these pages, and why their averages differ a little, are explained in how these figures are measured.
Average rent by bedroom type
| Unit type | Average rent paid, all tenants (October 2025) | Average asking rent, new tenants (second quarter of 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor / studio | $918 | $1,060 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,236 | $1,320 |
| 2 bedroom | $1,577 | $1,660 |
| 3 bedroom+ | $1,863 | $1,970 |
The first column is CMHC's average for occupied units in apartment buildings of six or more units, so it includes long-term tenants paying below-market rents. The second is Statistics Canada's average of listed rents, closer to what you'd be quoted if you moved now.
Rent and vacancy by survey zone
CMHC divides the Winnipeg CMA into survey zones: four in the older core around downtown, eight suburban zones, and the outlying municipalities.
| Survey zone | Vacancy | Vacancy a year before | Average 2-bedroom rent | Average rent, all units | Apartment units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Rouge | 1.9% | 1.3% | $1,601 | $1,390 | 8,846 |
| Centennial | 4.9% | 5.1% | $1,646 | $1,227 | 9,063 |
| Midland | 2.8% | 1.8% | $1,258 | $1,041 | 5,075 |
| Lord Selkirk | 2.4% | 2.5% | $1,144 | $1,032 | 1,583 |
| Core area, all zones | 3.2% | 2.9% | $1,500 | $1,235 | 24,567 |
| St. James | not published | 0.8% | $1,442 | $1,331 | 7,167 |
| West Kildonan | 3.5% | 0.9% | $1,549 | $1,456 | 6,332 |
| East Kildonan | 1.5% | 0.9% | $1,486 | $1,373 | 10,968 |
| Transcona | 0.7% | 1.1% | $1,450 | $1,318 | 939 |
| St. Boniface | 3.2% | 0.7% | $1,632 | $1,470 | 5,936 |
| St. Vital | 1.5% | 0.7% | $1,620 | $1,459 | 5,996 |
| Fort Garry | 3.0% | 1.9% | $1,731 | $1,639 | 9,506 |
| Assiniboine Park | 2.6% | 1.1% | $1,809 | $1,667 | 3,230 |
| Suburban areas, all zones | 2.7% | 1.0% | $1,590 | $1,467 | 50,074 |
| Outlying Areas | not published | 0.6% | $1,653 | $1,595 | 513 |
| Winnipeg CMA | 2.8% | 1.7% | $1,571 | $1,392 | 75,154 |
Source: CMHC, Winnipeg Rental Market Report data tables, Tables 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3, October 2025 (apartments in privately initiated structures of three or more units). “Not published”: CMHC suppressed the figure or rated it poor (use with caution).
The dearest zone for a 2-bedroom was Assiniboine Park, a suburban zone, at $1,809, and the cheapest Lord Selkirk, in the core area, at $1,144, a spread of $665 a month. Centennial, also in the core, had the most empty units, 4.9%, of the zones with a published rate. Taken together, the suburban zones’ vacancy moved from 1.0% to 2.7%, while the core area’s went from 2.9% to 3.2%. West Kildonan’s rate, 3.5%, compares with 0.9% a year earlier.
Manitoba’s guideline stops applying to units renting at or above a monthly threshold: $1,670 in 2026 and $2,000 from 2027. Assiniboine Park’s average 2-bedroom rent is 8% above the 2026 figure and Fort Garry’s 4% above it; the CMA-wide 2-bedroom average is 6% below it. Against the 2027 threshold, Assiniboine Park’s average is 10% below.
Why vacancy rose in Winnipeg
CMHC’s 2025 Rental Market Report puts it down to demand growing even more slowly than supply. The purpose-built stock grew 2.6%, under half the previous year’s growth, while demand grew more slowly still: Manitoba’s population grew at its slowest rate in 2 decades, and CMHC also points to fewer non-permanent residents, slower immigration and rising unemployment. CMHC links the higher vacancy in St. James and West Kildonan to big additions to their rental stock; Fort Garry added more purpose-built units than any other zone, yet they were taken up fast enough to keep its rate from jumping. Vacancy rose most in buildings put up before 1960, which compete with newer buildings offering incentives. With more choice, landlords held back increases on units re-let to new tenants, and CMHC notes that wage growth outpaced rent growth over the year.
Rented condominium apartments were tighter: a vacancy rate of 1.1% and an average 2-bedroom rent of $1,468 (4,444 condo units rented out, 22.1% of the CMA’s condo apartments). That rent was $1,445 a year earlier; CMHC says competition from new purpose-built rentals slowed it sharply.
What a move costs: new vs sitting tenants
A Winnipeg 2-bedroom re-let to a new tenant during the year rented for $1,595 a month on average; one where the tenant stayed, $1,551. The mover’s premium is $44 for a 2-bedroom and $60 for a 1-bedroom ($1,271 against $1,211). In Canada as a whole, the 2-bedroom gap is $286. In Winnipeg, 22.2% of units changed tenants during the year, the seventh-highest turnover rate of the 43 centres in CMHC’s table.
Vacancy rate trend
Winnipeg vacancy rate, apartments in buildings of 6+ units (CMHC, October each year)
Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0127.
The income a Winnipeg 2-bedroom takes
CMHC considers housing affordable when it costs less than 30% of before-tax household income, counting the rent (or mortgage payments, property tax and condo fees) plus electricity, heat, water and other municipal services. The figures here count the rent alone, so with utilities the income needed is higher. Keeping the average 2-bedroom rent of $1,571 within CMHC’s affordability benchmark of 30% of before-tax income takes a household income of $62,840. The census put Winnipeg’s median household income at $83,000 for 2020, so the income the rent calls for is 24% below the median. The census figure covers all households, owners included, and is for 2020; the rent is from the October 2025 survey. A newly listed 2-bedroom, at Statistics Canada’s average asking rent of $1,660 in the second quarter of 2026, would take $66,400, 20% below the median. The rent affordability calculator runs the same test on any rent and income.
Winnipeg against Manitoba and Canada
On CMHC’s three-units-and-over survey, Winnipeg’s 2-bedroom average of $1,571 is 4% above Manitoba’s ($1,507) and 1% above the Canadian average ($1,550). It ranks 21st-highest of those 43 centres for 2-bedroom rent. Its vacancy rate is below the national 3.1%. The CMA holds 78,860 of Manitoba’s 90,195 purpose-built rental townhouses and apartments in the centres CMHC surveys, or 87%, so the provincial averages mostly reflect Winnipeg.
Rules on rent increases in Winnipeg
Manitoba's rent increase guideline is 1.8% for 2026 (newer buildings and higher-rent units are exempt). Units in complexes built and occupied after March 7, 2005 are exempt for 20 years, and tenants must get at least 3 months' written notice. For a sitting tenant paying the CMA’s average 2-bedroom rent, the 3.0% guideline for 2027 works out to $47 a month more. In Manitoba a security deposit can be no more than half of the first month's rent, and where pets are allowed one pet damage deposit of up to one month's rent can be added; with no problems at move-out the landlord returns the deposits with interest within 14 days, and a landlord who wants to keep any of it sends a written notice of claim.
More: the Manitoba rental market page, rent increase rules by province and getting a security deposit back.
Related pages
- Manitoba Rental Market: Winnipeg and Brandon side by side
- Winnipeg Housing Market: home prices and sales
- Average Income in Winnipeg and Winnipeg income percentiles
- Regina Rental Market and Saskatoon Rental Market: the next prairie CMAs west
- Rent Affordability Calculator
Sources
- CMHC, Winnipeg Rental Market Report data tables, 2025 (survey zones) and the national data tables (Tables 1.0, 4.2, 5.0 and 6.0)
- CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report: Winnipeg commentary
- Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133 and 34-10-0127: CMHC rents and vacancy rates, apartment structures of six units and over
- Statistics Canada table 46-10-0092: quarterly average asking rents
- Statistics Canada table 98-10-0061: 2021 Census household income
- Manitoba rent increase guideline