Some Greater Victoria two-bedroom homes are now being priced at more than you can pay for renting an entire house.
This comes as a new rental report says that residential rental prices have risen in the past month. Zumper’s latest report has Victoria ranked as the fourth-most expensive city to rent in the nation last month.
The price of one-bedroom units in Victoria increased 0.5% to a median of $2,050, while two-bedroom units grew 1.8% to $2,800.
A review of sites such as Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace shows a number of two-bedroom units being priced at levels renters normally see for an entire house.
The most expensive listing found in recent days is a two-bedroom home on Harbour Road in Sidney that is going for $6,000 a month.
The rental does have incredible views of the ocean and it’s large at 1,900 square feet that includes a den.
“Do you want to view the ocean & incredible views the moment you wake up?” asks the rental listing. “Rarely do you find a waterfront townhome like this … Set in a peaceful location near marinas in Sidney, truly an ocean paradise with access to seaside pathways and water activities. The expansive windows and skylights bring in the natural light.”
Other two-bedroom rental listings are being priced from $4,500 to $5,700 – again, for the same price or even less, some renters could rent an entire house that includes a backyard.
One Craigslist ad shows a three-bedroom house with a den in Langford renting for $3,500 a month, while another house of the same size with a backyard and large deck near Swan Lake in Saanich is being offering for $2,900 a month.
Meanwhile, as rent increases between tenancies remain unregulated in B.C., someone entering a Greater Victoria rental in 2022 paid a third more on average than someone already living in the same building.
Incoming tenants are paying a premium compared to those in occupied B.C. rentals, with that affordability gap seeing a more than ten-fold increase for those trying to find a place in the Capital Region over the past decade.
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) found someone moving into an average Greater Victoria two-bedroom rental in 2022 would pay 33-per-cent more than a tenant of an occupied unit in the same building. Last year in Vancouver, the average asking rent for vacant units was 43-per-cent higher than the average rent for all occupied units, CMHC found.
A Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS) petition has been calling on the province to bring in vacancy controls as it flags how costs continue to soar in Victoria and Vancouver, even as the cities add record amounts of new rentals.
“The government’s current approach of addressing the housing crisis by building more rental housing is not enough,” the Victoria group’s petition states. “The current system provides BC landlords with huge financial incentive to evict tenants by any means necessary.”
But the province has said that vacancy controls will not be implemented.
- With additional reporting by Jake Romphf, Victoria News
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