Vancouver rental market data
Metro Vancouver is still Canada’s most expensive place to rent a purpose-built apartment, but its vacancy rate is now above the national rate. In the October 2025 survey the vacancy rate for apartments in buildings of three or more units reached 3.7%, from 1.6% a year earlier, which CMHC says is the highest since 1988. The average 2-bedroom rent paid by all tenants was $2,363, and rent for the same units rose 2.2%, the smallest same-sample increase in 20 years. The Canada rental market page explains how CMHC and Statistics Canada collect these figures.
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 | $1,669 | $2,000 |
| 1 bedroom | $1,809 | $2,280 |
| 2 bedroom | $2,367 | $3,030 |
| 3 bedroom+ | $3,026 | $4,150 |
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 reports October 2025 figures for the survey zones that cover the CMA, several of which combine neighbouring municipalities. The table below has the groups CMHC publishes and a selection of zones from the downtown peninsula out to the Fraser Valley edge; the full list is in CMHC’s Vancouver workbook (linked under Sources). Privately initiated apartments in buildings of three or more units.
| Vancouver area or zone | Vacancy rate | A year earlier | Average 2-bedroom rent | Average rent, all units | Units in the survey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West End/Stanley Park | 1.7% | 0.6% | $2,818 | $1,914 | 3,915 |
| English Bay | 2.7% | 1.6% | $2,929 | $2,020 | 6,773 |
| Downtown | 4.3% | 2.6% | $3,233 | $2,193 | 12,271 |
| West End/Downtown (Zones 1-3) | 3.4% | 2.0% | $3,081 | $2,094 | 22,959 |
| Kitsilano/Point Grey | 1.7% | 1.0% | $2,651 | $2,051 | 7,620 |
| Westside/Kerrisdale | 2.4% | 1.7% | $2,957 | $2,383 | 3,550 |
| Mount Pleasant/Renfrew Heights | 2.5% | 1.8% | $2,511 | $1,902 | 8,241 |
| East Hastings | 3.9% | 1.5% | $2,331 | $1,823 | 6,222 |
| Marpole | 2.6% | 1.6% | $1,895 | $1,540 | 3,799 |
| City of Vancouver (Zones 1-10) | 2.7% | 1.6% | $2,647 | $1,994 | 65,179 |
| University Endowment Lands | 1.2% | 0.3% | $3,281 | $2,805 | 1,963 |
| Burnaby (Zones 12-14) | 6.0% | 1.5% | $2,144 | $1,845 | 11,509 |
| New Westminster | not published | 1.4% | $2,134 | $1,793 | 10,614 |
| City of North Vancouver | 2.9% | 1.5% | $2,407 | $2,106 | 7,723 |
| West Vancouver | 1.6% | not published | $3,252 | $2,577 | 2,735 |
| Richmond | 3.4% | 0.7% | $2,018 | $1,826 | 2,998 |
| Surrey | 4.3% | 1.7% | $1,858 | $1,714 | 7,959 |
| White Rock | 5.1% | 1.8% | $1,813 | $1,547 | 1,405 |
| Tri-Cities | not published | 2.0% | $2,177 | $1,933 | 5,960 |
| Langley City and Township | 3.0% | 2.3% | $2,211 | $2,014 | 3,870 |
| Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows | 2.3% | not published | $1,653 | $1,514 | 1,764 |
| Vancouver CMA | 3.7% | 1.6% | $2,363 | $1,963 | 127,091 |
Source: CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Vancouver workbook. “Not published”: CMHC suppressed the figure or rated it poor (use with caution).
Of the 25 zones with a published 2-bedroom rent, the University Endowment Lands had the highest, $3,281, with West Vancouver (second-highest) and Downtown (third-highest) close behind. Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows had the lowest, $1,653, so the same size of apartment cost $1,628 a month more at the top of the range than at the bottom.
Vacancy was highest outside the core. White Rock’s rate of 5.1% was the highest of the zones with a published rate, and Burnaby as a whole stood at 6.0%, against 1.5% a year earlier. CMHC links Burnaby’s rise to condominium completions in Brentwood and new rental projects in Edmonds and Metrotown. Surrey’s vacancy rate was 4.3%; its rental stock grew a lot, but CMHC reports leasing got harder there because of competition from condos and a mix weighted to studios and 1-bedrooms, and it expects Surrey’s vacancies to rise further. The City of Vancouver itself, at 2.7%, held 51% of the CMA’s surveyed units.
What is driving Vancouver rents
CMHC’s 2025 Rental Market Report describes both lower demand and more supply. On the demand side: Federal policy changes for temporary workers and international students reduced the number of new renters, and British Columbia recorded 3 quarters in a row in which more non-permanent residents left than arrived, most of them renters. Higher youth unemployment and slow wage growth hit demand for studios and 1-bedrooms, with many young professionals moving in with roommates or parents.
Supply kept growing at the same time. New purpose-built rentals were concentrated in the City of Vancouver, especially Mount Pleasant, helped by zoning changes and city fee waivers; Coquitlam added the most rental units in 20 years, and Burnaby’s rental stock grew after 5 years of decline. Condo owners facing a slow resale market also put units up for rent: CMHC counted 107,192 rented condo apartments, 33.9% of the condo stock, with a vacancy rate of 1.5% and a 2-bedroom averaging $2,900.
The same-unit rent increase came in below BC’s 3% cap for 2025, which CMHC reads as many landlords not raising rents on existing tenants at all. Operators, especially in newer buildings, offered 1 to 2 months of free rent to fill units. The softening hasn’t reached the cheapest units: only about 1% to 2% of the rentals affordable to lower-income households were vacant, and CMHC singles out families looking for two or more bedrooms.
New tenants vs sitting tenants
Rent control on sitting tenants opens a wide gap in Vancouver between what a new tenant and a long-standing one pay. A 2-bedroom that changed hands in the year rented for $2,696 on average; one where the tenant stayed rented for $2,271. That is $425 more a month, or $5,100 a year, for the person who moves. The gap has narrowed: new-tenant 2-bedroom rent was $2,883 a year earlier, and CMHC calls the lower rents on turnover a shift toward a renter’s market. With more choice, the share of units changing tenants was 11.6%, against 9.1% the year before.
Vacancy rate trend
Vancouver vacancy rate, apartments in buildings of 6+ units (CMHC, October each year)
Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey via Statistics Canada table 34-10-0127.
What rent costs relative to income
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. A Vancouver household paying the average 2-bedroom rent of $2,363 needs a gross income of $94,520 for that rent to stay within CMHC’s 30% affordability line. The census median household income in the Vancouver CMA for 2020 was $90,000, so the threshold is 5% above the median, even before the new-tenant premium; the census income is older than the rent figures. Someone signing a lease at Statistics Canada’s 2-bedroom asking rent of $3,030 (second quarter of 2026) would need $121,200, 35% above the census median. The rent affordability calculator works through other incomes and rents.
How Vancouver compares
On CMHC’s three-units-and-over measure, Vancouver’s 2-bedroom average was 14% above British Columbia’s $2,065 and 52% above the Canadian $1,550, the highest of the 43 centres in CMHC’s table, ahead of Victoria and Kelowna. Its vacancy rate, the 12th-highest, tied with Oshawa and Windsor in that table, compares with 3.5% for the province and 3.1% for Canada. Turnover, at 11.6%, is below the national 12.8%.
Rules on rent increases in Vancouver
BC's rent increase limit is 2.3% for 2026. Rent can go up once every 12 months, with at least 3 full months' notice. In BC a security deposit can be no more than half of the first month's rent, and a pet damage deposit no more than another half; once the landlord has the tenant's forwarding address it has 15 days to return the deposits with interest, it can keep them only with the tenant's written permission or a Residential Tenancy Branch order, and if it does nothing in that time it may be ordered to pay double.
The British Columbia rental market page has the full rules and the cap for each year; the BC tenant rights guide covers the rest of a tenancy, rent increase rules by province sets BC beside the other provinces, and getting a security deposit back covers move-out.
Related pages
- Victoria Rental Market: the Island’s capital and BC’s second-largest rental market
- British Columbia Rental Market: Kelowna, Kamloops, Nanaimo and the Fraser Valley
- Vancouver Housing Market: home prices for comparing renting and buying
- Income in Vancouver: household income percentiles
- Rent Affordability Calculator: test a rent against your income
Sources
- CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Vancouver workbook: vacancy, rent and units by zone
- CMHC Rental Market Report data tables, Canada workbook: CMAs and provinces, turnover rents, rented condominiums
- CMHC 2025 Rental Market Report: Vancouver commentary
- Statistics Canada table 34-10-0133 and 34-10-0127: rents and vacancy, apartment structures of six units and over
- Statistics Canada table 46-10-0092: asking rents
- Statistics Canada table 98-10-0061: census household income