The average asking rent price in Canada hit $2,193 in February, marking a 21% increase compared to February 2022 — just before the Bank of Canada began its rate hike cycle.

In the last year alone, rent prices grew 10.5% across Canada, which represents the fastest annual growth since September 2023, says a new report from Rentals.ca and Urbanation.

“The rapid rate of rent growth in Canada is unrelenting,” said Shaun Hildebrand, President of Urbanation. “While some markets are experiencing a softening in rents, others are seeing an acceleration, with an underlying theme that rental supply remains grossly insufficient to meet current levels of demand.”

The increase was led by a 14.4% annual jump in purpose-built rental apartments, which hit an average asking price of $2,110 in February. Condo apartments, on the other hand, saw a 5% year-over-year increase in asking rents, reaching $2,372.

Canada’s priciest provinces — Ontario and British Columbia — saw the slowest growth in asking rents for both purpose-built rental and condo rental apartments over the past year, with increases of 1% and 1.3%, respectively. The most expensive cities within those provinces — Toronto and Vancouver — however, actually saw their average asking rents decline in February, falling 1.3% and 3.3%, respectively.