Holmes and apartment Lethbridge renters are shelling out more money each month, according to Rentals.ca, which tracks the price of vacant units from its network of Internet listing services.
this is the latest national rent report January shows rents for one-bedroom apartments in the city have risen by 17.5 per cent over the previous year.
Two-bedroom unit prices are up 15.2 percent over the same time frame.
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“Rents have really gone up, but they’re still really cheap compared to what’s going on across the country,” said Paul Dennison, content director at Rentals.ca.
Vancouver remains the most expensive city to rent in Canada, with an average price of $2,596 per month for a one bedroom unit.
Toronto ranks second at $2,457 for a one bedroom, followed by Burnaby, B.C. ($2,450), Toronto’s Etobicoke area ($2,172) and Mississauga, Ont. ($2,145), based on a list of 35 Canadian cities.
The cheapest cities to rent on the list were in Alberta, with a one bedroom going for $840 in Lloydminster, which ranked at the bottom.
Despite rising prices, Lethbridge remains below the Canadian rental average for all property types, which is listed on Rentals.ca at $2,005 monthly.
The brunt of inflation is being felt everywhere.
“The cost of owning a rental property is going up significantly and it’s not like the landlord is doing them or anything like that,” said Matthew Hemmerling, broker and CEO of Bremore Management Ltd.
“It’s just at the end of the day, they’re breaking even on their cost – so rental rates have to go up.”
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Lethbridge ranks 29th out of 35 cities tracked by the agency, but local brokers are still seeing unprecedented rates, including in the rental home market.
“They go at high rental rates, but they’re getting it at rates I’ve never seen before,” Hemmerling said.
“Closer to that $2,000 to $2,500, sometimes closer to $3,000 a month.”
According to property managers, there is no single expense that is contributing to the current prices.
“Variable (interest) rates are getting more expensive for landlords,” Hemmerling said. “Insurance has skyrocketed in the past year, along with utilities.”
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But the rental market may soon close. While experts are predicting that rents will continue to rise, it is not expected at the rate we saw last year.
“2022 was going to be a year that saw a really big increase in rents,” Dennison said.
The “extraordinary increase” in rents last year can be attributed to COVID-19 Recovering from the pandemic, record-high population growth, a big shortfall in home buying and low vacancy rates, the national rent report said.
“I don’t think it’s going to continue at that rate, but I do think it’s going to go up.”
As both tenants and landlords feel the pinch brought on by the rising cost of living.
– Saba Aziz, with files from Global News
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