British Columbia Apartment Market

British Columbia’s apartment market is led by Vancouver with over a hundred-thousand apartments, trailed by Victoria with 23,335 apartments. The remaining cities in British Columbia (not including suburbs of Vancouver) have very small apartment markets and are secondary markets at best. Ratios of apartments to population also show considerable variation from city to city: Vancouver is in the middle of the province with 4.9 apartments per 100 people, while New Westminster and North Vancouver (the latter a suburb of Vancouver) have 13.9 and 13.0 apartment per 100 people respectively. The lowest is in Richmond and Surrey, areas south of Vancouver, with only 1.3 apartments per 100 people.

Vacancy Rates and Average Rents

Average rents for the province are relatively high for Canada, although still trailing Ontario. Vacancy rates, however, are extremely low for Canada and are matched only by major cities in the Prairie provinces. This indicates a generally tight rental apartment housing market for renters in these areas.

To learn more about a specific rental market, please select a city from the list below.