Kelowna rents heading higher in the unaffordability rankings
After a couple of months of falling apartment rental rates in Kelowna that dropped it from the fourth most expensive market in the country to seventh, it’s now headed up again.
The online rental site Zumper.ca shows median rents for one-bedroom apartments in July rising 4.8% in Kelowna to $1,730 from $1,650 in June.
That puts Kelowna in sixth place on the most expensive list of major rental markets in the country.
In April, the median one-bedroom apartment rented for $1,800 in April, the fourth highest rate in the country.
A separate Zumper.ca report lists one-bedroom apartments in Kamloops at $1,602 compared to $1,555 a month earlier, but that’s based on only three listings.
Vancouver continues to be the most expensive rental market in the country and getting worse.
One-bedroom apartments in that city hit an all-time high of $2,400 in July, a 4.3% increase from June and up 20% from a year earlier.
Toronto prices dropped to $2,000 while Victoria was in third place at $1,990, a 5.9% increase.
Burnaby and Oshawa, ON, were more expensive than Kelowna.
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Rents for two-bedroom units jumped 6% in Kelowna to $2,300, making it the fifth most expensive city for that size of apartment.
In Vancouver, the median price for a two-bedroom unit was $3,440 per month.
Of the 24 cities on the Zumper.ca list, St. John’s, NL, remains the most affordable place to rent at $850 for one bedroom and $940 for two.
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