The Capital citys rents have climbed 7.5, or above the rate of inflation
News that Victoria's rental vacancy rate has broken the 1% mark for the first time in 4 years has not translated to a fall in rent prices.
Braden Batch, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's senior Victoria market analyst, says it's good news the city has climbed from a .7% vacancy rate to 1.2% -- the result of 682 new rentals entering the market.
The bad news is Victoria is also among the BC cities with the largest average rent increase:
" We are looking at a 7.5% same-sample rent increase. So these are units that were in the survey last year. So it's the same unit that that calculation was done from last year to this year, it's an apples to apples comparison. So that's quite a strong increase in the rent, it's certainly above the inflation rate. "
The average rent in Victoria is $1,170 -- the only cities higher in the province were Vancouver and Squamish ($1385 and $1186 respectively).
Batch says once 25-hundred rental units under construction right now hit the market in the coming years, the vacancy rate should increase -- and that should stop rents from rising above the inflation rate.