Rents rising at slower pace as N.B. hits rent cap anniversary

Data shows the cost of rent in New Brunswick has grown at a slower rate than in several previous years, coinciding with slowing population growth, increased housing supply and legislation capping rent increases at three per cent.

"We're starting to see rent growth in New Brunswick moderating. It's coming down," said Kelvin Ndoro, an economist with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The rise in rent observed in New Brunswick last fall was the most modest it's been in three years, according to findings by the CMHC in its annual rental market survey done last October.

Between October 2024 and October 2025, rent prices in the province increased by 5.7 per cent.

The increase outpaces New Brunswick's overall consumer price index by more than double, with Statistics Canada reporting a 2.1 per cent inflation rate for that same period.

However, the rate of increase still represented a slowdown from increases of seven per cent, 7.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent reported by the CMHC for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.

"There's a lot of rental construction that is going on right now and as more of those units come onto the market without a significant change in demand, we can expect to see rents continue to stabilize or even come down a little bit more," Ndoro said.

The CMHC only conducts its rental market surveys in October, meaning the most recent results captured rent growth that occurred before New Brunswick's three per cent rent cap came into effect last February.

It also leaves out data for more recent months. However, Statistics Canada's consumer price index data — which is updated monthly — suggest the slowdown continued through later parts of last year.

From last February to December — the most recent month for which CPI data is available — rent grew by 4.6 per cent.

For the same period in 2022, 2023 and 2024, the CPI for rent increased by 6.1 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.

New Brunswick saw rapidly increasing rent prices in the wake of a population boom and limited housing supply beginning in 2021.

According to Statistics Canada estimates, the province's population grew 11 per cent in the past five years, though that growth has slowed recently, and even went in the opposite direction last fall for the first time in almost a decade.

Over a similar period, CMHC data show average rent costs in New Brunswick grew by 36 per cent, while CPI data measured an even higher 45 per cent increase.