The cost of renting continues to drop across Canada, including in BC.
According to the most recent rent report from Rentals.ca, Victoria rental costs have dropped across the board since last month, and have also decreased year-over-year.
The report shows that, on average, a one-bedroom unit is going for around $1,958 per month, which is down by about 6% since this time last year, and 0.7% since last month.
For two-bedroom units in Victoria, the average cost per month is around $2,580 per month, which is down 0.6% since December’s report and down 7% since this time last year.
These figures put Victoria in 20th place—down from 18th—for most expensive rental markets throughout Canada.
Nanaimo is the only other Vancouver Island community to make the list at 28th, with one-bedrooms going for around $1,827 per month and two-bedrooms for $2,326.
According to the rental report, the most expensive city to live in across Canada is North Vancouver, with one-bedrooms costing $2,469 per month and two-bedrooms costing $3,286.
Though these figures may seem high, they have decreased by 7.5% and 4.1% respectively since this time last year.
Conversely, the cheapest of the top 60 cities is St. John’s, Newfoundland, where a one-bedroom will cost around $1,094 per month—around $1,000 cheaper than Victoria—and a two-bedroom goes for around $1,262.
The report states that the average asking rent in Canada fell to $2,060 in December, which is down 2.3% year-over-year and represents the lowest level in two and a half years.
December marked the 15th straight month of the average Canadian rent decreasing, making 2025 come to a close with rental costs down by 5.4% over two years.
That being said, rent is still up by 14.1% since December 2019 levels, prior to the pandemic.
In BC’s rental market, costs are down by 12.1% in the last three years for apartments. This is in part due to the increase in new purpose-built rentals in municipalities that were targeted by the Province to increase their rental supply.
Victoria was one of the first communities targeted, as its vacancy rate was determined to be below the minimum threshold.
In Victoria, 882 new units were built to completion between October 1st, 2024 and September 30th, 2025.
The City’s target for this time period was set at 766 by the Province, meaning the Victoria was able to surpass their goal by 116 units.
The City’s quota for the first year of housing targets was set at 659 new units, and during that time, the City was able to complete 1,477 net new units.
Just two years into the five-year deadline, Victoria has managed to build 48% of the 4,902 new units required.
According to the BC government, Greater Victoria’s vacancy rate has been determined to have reached 3.3% by the end of 2025. In October 2022, the vacancy rate was as low as 1.4%.
