At a glance
- The average monthly rent price for a one-bedroom, unfurnished unit in Metro Vancouver has increased by $26, or +1.12% this January to a new rate of $2,367.
- The average rate for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit in Metro Vancouver has now risen by $110 since January 2023.
- Metro Vancouver renters are spending, on average, 50.51% of their monthly income on rent.
Looking for our full January 2024 Metro Vancouver Rent Report? Download your copy here to get all the latest insights, including a detailed breakdown by neighbourhood.
To begin the new year, Metro Vancouver’s average rent prices have increased after a winter that has so far seen rates fall. Despite this recent increase, the average rate for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit remains just above November’s levels. The Bank of Canada announced on December 6th that it would once again maintain the target overnight rate, which may see rates fluctuate or remain at their current levels through the beginning of 2024.
Let’s take a look now at the current rental costs and overarching trends in Vancouver for January 2024. Don’t forget, you can download the entire report as a PDF below.
Download The Latest Vancouver Rent Report
For the complete Vancouver rent report including new neighbourhood breakdowns, download here.
Average rent across Metro Vancouver
Metro Vancouver’s average rent prices have increased this January after three consecutive decreases. This January, the average monthly rent price for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit rose by $26, to a new average of $2,367. Since January 2023, Metro Vancouver’s average rate for a one-bedroom, unfurnished unit has increased by $110.
Planning on raising rent this year? B.C.’s annual allowable rent increase limit for 2024 is 3.5%. Find out when and how you can increase rent and ensure you’re complying with provincial guidelines by reading our updated Guide to B.C. Rent Increases.
>> Recommended Reading: [Updated for 2023] How Much Can Landlords Increase Rent in BC?
Month-to-month rent change
To get a better sense of how rent prices changed in Metro Vancouver’s individual cities, let’s break down the major changes for both furnished and unfurnished units this January.
Compared to December, this month has seen quite a few notable shifts in Metro Vancouver’s average rent prices. Looking at one-bedroom, unfurnished units, Langley (-8.66%) and Vancouver (-1.19%) each saw a month-to-month decrease, while the most notable rate increases were seen in West Vancouver (+7.88%) and North Vancouver (+4.55%).
Furnished units also had a number of noteworthy changes in average rent price to begin the new year. The largest decreases were observed in North Vancouver (-4.74%), Surrey (-3.95%), and Langley (-3.30%). In terms of month-to-month increases, the only changes were seen in Burnaby (+3.26%) and Vancouver (+0.75%).
Rent per square foot
Where’s the cheapest place to rent in Metro Vancouver for how much space you get? As of January 2024, the least expensive cities for square footage are West Vancouver, Langley, Surrey while the most expensive cities for square footage are Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Burnaby.
Is your rental priced competitively?
Find out with a free rent estimate. Our team of rental experts will calculate your unit’s true value based on your listing details & current market trends.
Active listing data
We’ll also take a look at detailed statistics for currently active listings available on the market to see which property types and number of bedrooms are the most represented. For renters, these numbers show which types of units you’re most likely to encounter in the Metro Vancouver region, while for landlords, you can assess how much competition you’ll face based on the current supply.
Active listings by property type
For January 2024, the most common rental property type by far was apartments, representing 78.05% of active listings on the market. Partial houses (e.g. basement suites) were the second-most rented unit type this month, at 12.21% of active listings currently available to rent.
Active listings by number of bedrooms
In terms of the number of bedrooms, we saw a more even spread across active listings on the market this January. Two-bedroom units were the most common type of listing this month at 48.00%, though one-bedroom units still represented 39.71% of all active listings on the market.
Average unfurnished vs. furnished rates
Average prices for unfurnished one-bedroom units increased slightly this month, while rates for furnished units fell. As of this January, unfurnished one-bedroom units are, on average, $121 less expensive than furnished one-bedroom units. This indicates that landlords who choose to rent their units furnished will typically be able to charge more for rent.
Is your rental priced competitively?
Find out with a free rent estimate. Our team of rental experts will calculate your unit’s true value based on your listing details & current market trends.
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. Here are some highlights from our most recent findings:
- Average rent prices in Vancouver fell for all types of unfurnished units this month, while rates for all types of furnished units in the city rose.
- West Vancouver had the highest average rent prices for one-, two-, and three-bedroom unfurnished units, as well as three-bedroom furnished units.
- Langley had the lowest average rent prices for unfurnished one- and two-bedroom units.
Gain comprehensive insights about your listings with the new liv.rent Landlord listing Dashboard. Sign in to unlock live insights – find out the average rent for a comparable property, number of views your listing received and more!
Neighbourhood breakdown
We’ve broken down Vancouver into its individual neighbourhoods for a more complete look at the city’s 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. Dunbar-Arbutus is Vancouver’s most expensive neighbourhood to rent in by far this month, with an unfurnished one-bedroom unit renting for $3,142/month on average. The same type of unit rents for an average of $2,293 in Vancouver’s cheapest neighbourhood, Renfrew-Collingwood.
We’ve recently added more new neighbourhoods to our monthly reports that aren’t shown in the data below. To see data on these additional neighbourhoods, statistics for furnished rentals, as well as neighbourhood breakdowns for other cities in Metro Vancouver, be sure to download your copy of our full report here.
Most expensive cities in Canada
This January, four of Canada’s most expensive cities to rent in are in Metro Vancouver while one Ontario city also makes the top five. West Vancouver is the most expensive city in the country to rent in, while Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Richmond also make the list. For the fourth straight month, Markham rounds out this month’s most expensive cities to rent in with the fourth-highest prices in the country.
>> Recommended Reading: The 12 Cheapest Neighbourhoods For Rent In Metro Vancouver
Other rental data
These insights are exclusive to our blog and are intended to give more context to each month’s rental data. Based on data sourced directly from liv.rent, these statistics provide a more comprehensive overview of the current rental situation in Canada.
Income-to-rent ratio
Each month, we gather data on renters’ income-to-rent ratio and our most recent data shows that renters in Vancouver who use liv.rent are paying, on average, 50.51% of their income towards rent. This may be considerably above the recommended amount but isn’t an anomaly given the past few months’ average rental rates.
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.
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.
Renter demographics
On liv.rent, our renter demographics are fairly balanced across all different age groups. While many of our users are aged 25-34, there’s an almost equal representation of renters under 25, as well as a notable amount of users over 35 years of age.
Pet-friendly rentals
We’re proud to say that liv.rent continues to be the rental platform with the most pet-friendly rentals. This January, other rental platforms have just 22.00% of units available that were pet-friendly while on liv.rent, 51.00% of all listed units were pet-friendly.
>> Recommended Reading: The Top 8 Pet Friendly Neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver
Downloadable resources
Download The Latest Vancouver Rent Report
For the complete Vancouver rent report including new neighbourhood breakdowns, download here.
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.
Rethink The Way You Rent
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Subscribe to receive these monthly updates on the Vancouver rental market. Discover last month’s Rent Reports below:
December 2023 Metro Vancouver Rent Report
December 2023 Toronto Rent Report
December 2023 Calgary & Edmonton Rent Report
December 2023 Montreal Rent Report
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