British Columbia leads country in rent price drops
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A new study by rentals.ca has revealed British Columbia leads the country in provincial rental price drops. In the last two years, rent asking prices have dropped by 9.6%, and 5.8% in the past year. While most of the data in this report focused on the lower mainland specifically, Prince George rentals have also seen a drop of one percent compared to last year, for an average of $1315 a month, according to Apartments.com.
“When Covid hit, the whole real estate market went upside down and what went along with that was rental vacancies plummeted, and then we had a lot of difficulty. Now, over the last couple of years, the market has kind of settled into something a little bit more, we might call more normal,” said Prince George real estate agent Bob Quinlan.
Even though B.C. saw the largest rent drop, it’s price is still the highest in the country with an average of $2439 a month, although this number is greatly inflated due to lower mainland prices, particularly Vancouver and its $2738 a month average. As for Prince George, Quinlan believes current market trends could create a more renter-friendly landscape, on top of already existing rental price drops.
“Once the demand decreases, then of course the the asking or the actual rental property prices do actually drop. And when you look at construction, we’re seeing a lot of apartments that are being built around town. And any house that is being built nowadays, it has the accommodation for a second residence in it no matter what, no matter where it’s being built, there is accommodations for a suite in the house. So the supply is going up and that’s naturally going to ease the demand,” Quinlan said.
