Rents for two-bedroom apartments across Canada’s major cities fell 3.6 per cent year over year in the second quarter of 2026, according to new Statistics Canada data released September 9, marking one of the clearest signs yet that the country’s rental boom of recent years is losing steam in its most expensive markets. The average asking rent for a two-bedroom unit across all census metropolitan areas combined came in at $2,130 a month, down from the same period a year earlier, per the federal agency’s Quarterly Rent Statistics program, run in partnership with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The national figure masks sharply different regional stories. Asking rents dropped year over year in several of Canada’s largest and historically priciest markets, including Abbotsford–Mission and Calgary, both down 6.4 per cent, Montréal (down 5.2 per cent) and Vancouver (down 4.1 per cent). But in a number of smaller and mid-sized cities, rents kept climbing. Thunder Bay posted the largest increase in the country at 6.5 per cent, followed by Sherbrooke (up 5.7 per cent), Halifax (up 5.3 per cent) and Saskatoon (up 5.2 per cent).
Gateway Cities Still Carry the Highest Price Tags
Despite the pullback, absolute rent levels remain highest by far in Canada’s largest metros. Vancouver had the highest average asking rent for a two-bedroom unit at $3,030 a month, followed by Toronto at $2,650, Victoria at $2,640 and Halifax at $2,400. The data also distinguishes between asking rents, what a new tenant would pay today, and paid rents, what existing tenants are actually paying under active leases. In most CMAs where both figures were tracked, asking rent exceeded paid rent, a gap Statistics Canada attributes partly to provincial rent-control frameworks that cap increases for sitting tenants while leaving new renters exposed to current market pricing. Calgary, Regina and Edmonton were exceptions: in Calgary, asking rent of $1,890 trailed paid rent of $1,930; in Regina, asking rent of $1,480 was below paid rent of $1,580; and in Edmonton the two measures were equal at $1,570.
CMHC’s mid-year rental market update points to increased housing supply, driven by new building completions, combined with slower population growth as the main drivers of the broader softening in asking rents, with the added supply particularly evident in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. The agency cautioned, however, that this dynamic may not hold indefinitely, noting that demand in major cities is expected to grow again as affordability gradually improves, which could put a floor under rents in high-demand urban markets over time.
Rental Trends Tied to the Broader Ownership Market
The easing in rents is unfolding alongside a tentative shift in Canada’s ownership market. RBC Economics reported in June 2026 that its national measure of homeownership costs fell 1.4 percentage points to 53 per cent of pre-tax household income in the first quarter of 2026, its best reading in four years. RBC’s Assistant Chief Economist Robert Hogue has said the housing market is showing signs of a gradual turnaround, with home resales rising for four consecutive months through July 2026 and the national aggregate MLS Home Price Index posting back-to-back monthly increases, something not seen since early 2024.
Still, RBC’s broader outlook projects home resales to fall 3.6 per cent to 453,200 units and the benchmark price index to decline 2.3 per cent to $794,200 for 2026 overall, reflecting weakness earlier in the year, before recovering in 2027 with resales forecast to grow 6.7 per cent to 483,600 units and prices edging up 0.8 per cent to $800,700. Hogue has noted that immigration cuts pose a more direct headwind to the rental sector than to home ownership, since newcomers, particularly temporary residents, tend to live in rental housing for their first five to ten years in the country, a factor that helps explain softer demand pressure in some rental markets even as ownership costs improve.
What It Means for Landlords and Investors
The regional divergence in rent trends carries implications for property owners and institutional investors alike. Markets posting the steepest declines in asking rents, such as Calgary, Montréal and Vancouver, may also see the earliest compression in rental income yields, while mid-sized cities such as Thunder Bay, Sherbrooke, Halifax and Saskatoon, where rents are still climbing, could offer more resilient near-term returns. Publicly traded landlords have shown mixed performance amid these crosscurrents: shares of NexLiving Communities recently fell 2.13 per cent even as the company reported stable rental growth, while analysts have separately examined Canadian Apartment Properties REIT as a potential value opportunity within the apartment sector. Statistics Canada cautions that its Quarterly Rent Statistics figures remain experimental and subject to revision as more data becomes available.
This article references reporting from:
