Winnipeg apartment rents make big leap: Zumper

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This article was published 17/07/2024 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A digital marketplace for renters has placed Winnipeg top of its list for fastest growing rent.

Zumper, which released its Canadian rent report earlier this week, claims Winnipeg’s median one-bedroom rent has increased 25 per cent year-over-year, reaching $1,500.

Manitoba’s capital overtook Edmonton, which had previously held Zumper’s top spot.

Still, Manitoba is cheaper relative to Canada’s other major cities; it was 18th on the list of monthly rental prices.

Crystal Chen, spokeswoman for Zumper, said Canadians may be moving to Manitoba for its cheaper rates, driving up prices. This combines with higher immigration levels, a low apartment vacancy rate and more people kept in the rental market, sidelined from home-buying by inflation and interest rates, Chen added.

“I don’t see a mass exodus any time soon,” she said of Winnipeg.

A median two-bedroom price in the city was $1,720, a 12.4 per cent year-over-year increase, Zumper noted.

It’s a sharp increase from data shared by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The federal Crown corporation found a 4.3 per cent sample-rent growth rate in Winnipeg last year. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate sank to 1.8 per cent, its lowest in more than a decade.

Jino Distasio, a University of Winnipeg urban geography professor, expressed skepticism about Zumper’s findings, specifically the 25 per cent increase.

However, it follows a general trend the CMHC highlights — rents across Canada are rising amid low vacancy rates, Distasio said. “The only way to alleviate that is more supply.”

Renters are more likely to struggle with housing affordability and poor housing conditions, Distasio explained. They feel pressure as the system buckles, he described.

Manitoba has rent increase guidelines with several exceptions. Among them, suites first occupied after March 2005 and/or already costing a minimum $1,615 per month are not subject to the legislation, which prevents property owners from hiking rent above a three per cent increase this year.

“Under normal conditions, the measures that have been put in Manitoba have done reasonably well,” Distasio said. “The challenge is … we’re in unreasonable times.”

People are paying more, and not necessarily for better quality, because of a lack of supply, the researcher underscored.

The past five years have seen rising and unpredictable costs everywhere, including in construction. As a result, more households are struggling, he said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com