Rent prices in Kelowna and Kamloops trending down
Rent prices in Kelowna and Kamloops are on their way down, but renters might not be noticing quite yet.
The cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Kelowna has gone down 4.7 per cent in the last year, while Kamloops has seen a two per cent decrease, according to the most recent report from Rentals.ca.
The average cost of a one-bedroom in Kelowna is $1,896 and for a two-bedroom it’s $2,324 making it the 27th most expensive city for renters in Canada. Kamloops is slightly cheaper at $1,741 for a one-bedroom and $2,114 for a two-bedroom so it ranks 36th most expensive city for renters. Rentals.ca does not provide data from Vernon and Penticton.
The national average rent price has gone down 2.8 per cent and it’s sitting at $2,119.
“Average asking rents in Canada decreased 2.8 per cent from a year ago to $2,119 in March, marking the sixth consecutive month that rents decreased on an annual basis,” Rentals.ca wrote in its report.
B.C. is still the most expensive province to rent in with the average one-bedroom going for $2,215, but the price has seen a tiny dip of 0.6 per cent.
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Rentals.ca gets its numbers from listings on its site so the data varies from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s information which only looks at purpose-built rentals.
CMHC’s outlooks for the rental market does have the same optimism as the recent report from Rentals.ca.
“Rental markets are expected to ease with higher vacancy rates slowing rent growth. Renter affordability will improve gradually, with more noticeable changes happening later in the forecast period,” CMHC said in its 2025 market outlook.
Kelowna’s vacancy rate jumped from 1.3 per cent in 2023 to 3.8 per cent in 2024. Kelowna also surpassed its provincial housing target by building 1,501 new units between July and December of 2024.
Kamloops did not have as significant of a jump in vacancies going from 1.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent in 2024. Kamloops was expected to build 679 new units but only saw 449 as of November 2024.
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