September 2022 Metro Vancouver Rent Report

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As we head into the fall, average rent prices across Metro Vancouver have risen higher once again. September typically marks the peak of the busy summer renting season as students return to classrooms en masse, and this competitive market, combined with Canada’s rising interest rates, has led to yet another yearly high.

You can get the latest updates on the Vancouver rental market straight to your inbox when you subscribe to keep on top of the latest rent trends.

Let’s take a look now at the current rental costs and overarching trends in Vancouver for September 2022. Don’t forget, you can download the entire report as a one-page infographic PDF below.

Jump to the following Vancouver Rent Report sections:

Average rent across Metro Vancouver

Continuing on from August’s steep increases, September sees another sharp rise in Metro Vancouver’s average rent prices. This month, the region-wide average rate for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit is up $71, all the way to $2,247 for September 2022. It’s difficult to say whether prices will continue to climb throughout the remainder of the year, but with students now largely settled, competition could relax slightly moving forward. We’ll take a look at the statistics driving this increase in this report, as well as the manifold factors behind the region’s higher rental averages.

Month-to-month rent change

September’s month-to-month rent changes may not be as pronounced as August’s large-scale shifts, but there were still a number of notable increases and decreases across the region’s many individual communities.

As we take a closer look at unfurnished units, West Vancouver was the standout figure this month with a massive 26.35% increase. Richmond, on the other hand, saw a significant -11.88% decline in average rent price this month after experiencing huge increases in August. Vancouver also saw its largest average increase in months, with a +6.31% gain between August and September. Other changes were less pronounced, with North Vancouver (+2.98%), New Westminster (-3.91%), and Coquitlam (+1.85%) also seeing moderate shifts.

Furnished units were a bit more volatile this September, as we’ve become accustomed to seeing. Prices in North Vancouver dropped -14.33% month-to-month, marking the largest decline. Burnaby (-9.48%) and West Vancouver (-8.49%) also saw rent prices decline on average. In terms of average increases, Langley (+9.23%), New Westminster (+7.13%) and Coquitlam (+3.16%) marked the most significant changes in per-month rent prices.

Income-to-rent ratio

We gather data on renters’ income-to-rent ratio every month, and our most recent data shows that renters in Vancouver who use liv.rent are paying, on average, 39.52% of their income towards rent.

While traditional financial advice would be to spend no more than 30% of your income on rent, this advice is perhaps not well suited to the realities of renting in cities like Vancouver – especially as prices continue their rapid climb due to Canada’s rising interest rates.

Still, landlords and property managers should look to see that a tenant can reasonably afford rent compared to how much money they make as part of their tenant screening process.

Rent per square foot

Where’s the cheapest place to rent in Metro Vancouver by how much space you get? This August, the least expensive cities for square footage are Coquitlam, Richmond, and Surrey while the most expensive this month is Vancouver itself.

Renter demographics

Our liv.rent, renter demographics have seen a significant shift in recent months, with more and more renters from different age groups now using the platform. We’re now seeing a much more even spread, particularly with the recent influx of renters aged 35+ as well as increased representation from the younger demographic. With that being said, the majority of renters that make up our community are between the ages of 25-34.

Pet-friendly rentals

We’re proud to say that liv.rent continues to be the rental platform with the most pet-friendly rentals. This August, other rental platforms had just 25.00% of units available that were pet-friendly while on liv.rent, 54.00% of listed units were pet-friendly.

Average unfurnished vs. furnished rates

This September, unfurnished, one-bedroom units rented for slightly more on average than their furnished counterparts. As of this month, unfurnished one-bedroom units are, on average, $28 more expensive than furnished units. This indicates that landlords who choose to rent their units furnished will not see a pronounced difference in how much they can charge for rent. Even so, furnished units are better suited to student and short-term rentals, which are highly in demand right now.

City breakdown 

Metro Vancouver’s rental averages vary greatly across the region, so we’ve broken up our data by municipality/city to compare the cost of one-, two-, and three-bedroom rates for both furnished and unfurnished units in different areas.

• For one-, two- and three-bedroom unfurnished units, West Vancouver had the most expensive rent prices this September.
• Langley continues its three-month streak as the cheapest place to rent both unfurnished and furnished one-bedroom units, at $1,724 and $1,888, respectively.
• Vancouver had the most expensive one- and two-bedroom furnished units this month, though West Vancouver had the most expensive three-bedroom furnished units.

Neighbourhood breakdown

We’ve broken down Vancouver into its individual neighbourhoods for a more complete look at the city’s individual rental markets. For a further breakdown of neighbourhoods in municipalities and cities outside of Vancouver, be sure to download our complete Rent Report.

Let’s take a look now at some of the latest averages from Vancouver’s many unique neighbourhoods. This September, Downtown was once again Vancouver’s most expensive neighbourhood at an average of $2,931 for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit, while the same type of unit rented for an average of $1,828 in Vancouver’s cheapest neighbourhood, Renfrew.

You can take a look at our neighbourhood breakdown for unfurnished units in Vancouver here. For the complete report, including furnished rentals for Vancouver neighbourhoods as well as full information for other cities in Metro Vancouver, be sure to download your copy below.

Most expensive cities in Canada

West Vancouver once again tops Vancouver as Canada’s most expensive city to rent in terms of unfurnished one-bedroom units, with the average one-bedroom, unfurnished unit in the municipality going for $3,312. North Vancouver has also made it onto the list this month in third place, with a monthly average rent of $2,486. Meanwhile, Richmond has replaced Toronto on our list of Canada’s most expensive cities, with an average per-month rent cost of $2,151 compared to $2,010 in Toronto.

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Downloadable resources

Make Zoom calls fun and informative when you use the latest rental averages and trends as your virtual background.

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Rental resources for B.C. renters

You can read these comprehensive guides for more information on renting in B.C. and using liv.rent to streamline your rental process.

• BC Residential Tenancy Agreement Explained
• Guide to BC Tenancy Forms
  
• The Complete User Guide To liv.rent For Landlords & Property Managers
• The Ultimate Renter’s Guide To Using liv.rent

Data collection methodology

Our monthly rent reports use data from our own liv.rent listings, as well as data our team manually collects from other popular listing sites – looking at available basement suites, apartments, condos, townhouses, semi-detached houses, and single-detached houses for each area.

When collecting this data, we do exclude luxury properties listed at over $5,000, as well as rooms for rent and shared accommodation. Investing in manual data collection means that we only consider the current month’s listing, since we can filter out duplicate listings and older ads that haven’t been removed.

Another key difference between our data collection methods and some government agencies like the CMHC is that we only include current asking rent prices. Many official reports will include data for entire buildings in their reports, which tends to skew numbers lower since many units are already occupied, and may be rent-controlled or rented for significantly lower than the current rates.

As we are a Canadian rental platform founded and based in Vancouver, we want to ensure that we’re providing a completely accurate depiction of the rental market in the cities we look at.

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Subscribe to receive these monthly updates on the Vancouver rental market. Discover last month’s Rent Reports below:

August 2022 Metro Vancouver Rent Report
August 2022 Toronto Rent Report
August 2022 Montreal Rent Report