Apartment market loosens up a bit in 2 of N.B.'s 3 largest cities
CBC
After record lows in recent years, vacancy rates trended upward last year in Fredericton and Moncton, although in Saint John, the rate fell.
The Canadian and Mortgage Housing Corporation's recent annual rental market survey covers October 2024 to October 2025 and includes each area's vacancy rate, a percentage of rental stock that is not occupied.
“It's a very important number because it shows how easy or difficult it is for people that are looking to rent a unit, for them to find one,” said Kelvin Ndoro, CMHC’s lead economist for the Atlantic region.
Ndoro said it’s ideal for cities to have a rate between three and five per cent.
For the entire province, the vacancy rate increased to 2.9 per cent from two per cent. That is the highest rate since 2020 and an improvement from a record low of 1.5 per cent in 2023.
Fredericton saw an increase to 2.5 per cent from 0.9 per cent during the same period. Saint John saw a dip from 3.9 per cent to 2.1 per cent.
Moncton’s census metropolitan area, which includes Riverview and Dieppe, had a 3.8 per cent vacancy rate in October 2025 seeing a record low 1.2 per cent in 2023 and a slight increase to 1.5 per cent the next year.
“It's very good to see that that rate increasing especially where we were below the national average for quite a few years,” said Josh Davies, Moncton’s manager of long-range policy planning, said of the increase in the Moncton area.
The area hasn’t seen a healthy rate since 2017, not that different from what has happened in the rest of the province.
The Fredericton census metropolitan area's 0.9 per cent last year was the lowest since the CMHC started tracking the number in 1990. The area also includes Hanwell and New Maryland.
“Fredericton’s vacancy rate has been stubbornly low for a few years now,” said Coun. Jason LeJeune, chair of the city’s economic prosperity and growth planning committee.
LeJeune said a few years of strong residential building is finally coming to fruition, which improves the rate.
He thinks as more units open up, the city will find itself in a healthy rate range soon.
Saint John’s metropolitan area includes surrounding towns areas such as Quispamsis, Rothesay and Grand Bay-Westfield. The area's 2.1 per cent vacancy rate is an improvement over its record-low 1.7 per cent vacancy rate in 2022.
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