Average rents up 3% across Canada in 2021, CMHC says

National rental prices were up three per cent year-over-year in 2021, according to CMHC, with affordability eroding fastest in Vancouver and Toronto.

Canadian tenants faced another year of affordability challenges as rents crept up nationally and were particularly high in Vancouver and Toronto.

The findings from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s annual rental market report released Friday show the average rent for a two-bedroom home in the 37 areas the federal housing agency studied increased to $1,167 last year, a three per cent rise from $1,128 in 2020 and $1,080 in 2019.

Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist, attributed the rise in rent to a supply and demand imbalance, and said the increase was also affected by the different speeds of recovery cities have experienced in the latest stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area, he said, were facing the most severe affordability challenges because those cities held onto the highest average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment. Vancouver rent increased 2.4 per cent to $1,824, while rent in the GTA rose 1.5 per cent to $1,666.

“When you look at lower income households the mismatch between affordable rentals and the number of households gets worse,” he said.

“Last year in Toronto and Vancouver, only 0.2 per cent of the rental universe was affordable for the bottom 20 per cent of earners.”

CMHC and Dugan found someone renting a two-bedroom purpose-built apartment in Vancouver would have to work 198 hours per month to keep monthly rent at 30 per cent of their gross income, the threshold of affordability.

In Toronto, it would take 178.3 hours per month, up 7.6 hours from last year.