Rents Fall, People Leave, and Wealth Hits a Record: Canada's Market This Month

Three stories caught my eye this month, and together they tell you a lot about where the Canadian market is heading. Rents are cooling off, more people are leaving the country than at any point in decades, and household wealth just hit a record high. Let me walk you through each one and what it means for you.

Rents keep sliding across Canada

Asking rents across Canada have fallen to their lowest level in 18 months. For the fifth month in a row, asking rents came in below the same month a year earlier, and we are now back to where things sat in July 2023. According to the latest Rentals.ca report, the average asking rent across the country in February was down 4.8% from a year earlier, landing at $2,088 a month.

Supply is running ahead of demand right now, and that is pushing rents down. I expect that trend to continue for a while. Part of it is the sheer number of condo apartments sitting on the rental market. Part of it is nervousness about the tariff fight with the United States. Either way, this is a full reversal from last year, when rents were climbing at double-digit speed. In February 2024, asking rents were up 10.5% year over year. Keep in mind rents are still higher than they were two and five years ago, so this is a cooling, not a crash.

Condo rents lead the drop

The sharpest declines are in the condo market. Asking rents for condos dropped 7.6% and hit their lowest level in 26 months, averaging $2,192 a month. Studios and one-bedrooms took the biggest hit. Two-bedroom condos slipped as well and now average $2,323, while three-bedroom units, which usually see strong demand, average $2,757.

If you own a condo you are renting out, this matters. The days of naming your price and getting three applications by dinner are gone for now. Pricing realistically and keeping a good tenant is worth more than chasing a number the market will not pay.

Where rents fell most

The drop is not spread evenly. In Vancouver, one-bedroom rents fell 5.1%. Toronto is right there with a decline of 5.4%. Calgary saw one of the steepest drops, with one-bedroom rents down 7.5% from a year ago. A handful of Ontario cities, including Mississauga, Brampton and North York, saw declines in the 3% to 4% range.

A few markets went the other way. Rents in Guelph and Halifax rose. But the overall direction is clear, and it favours renters for the first time in a long while.

More people are leaving Canada

Here is the story that surprised me most. The number of people leaving Canada for good climbed again in the last quarter of 2024, and the pace is the fastest we have seen in generations. Over the full year, more than 16,000 people left the country permanently. Some go for retirement, some for a better job, some for family reasons. A steady trickle is normal. What is not normal is the speed.

There is a related number worth noting. Canada's population growth has slowed hard. As of January 1, 2025, the country's population sat at about 41.5 million, and the first quarter of 2025 saw the weakest growth since late 2020. That slowdown is deliberate. Ottawa is pulling back on temporary residents after their share of the population doubled in under five years. For anyone watching housing demand, this is a big lever.

Canadian household wealth hit a record

The last story is a happier one, with a catch. Household net worth in Canada jumped in the fourth quarter of 2024. Net worth rose 1.4% in the quarter, an increase of $236.3 billion, pushing the total to a staggering $17.5 trillion. Over the full year, wealth grew 7.3%.

Higher interest rates actually played a role here. When borrowing costs are high, debt grows more slowly, and that helped balance sheets. But the gains are not shared evenly. The wealthiest 20% of households hold roughly 68% of the country's financial assets, so most of the benefit flows to the top. That gap is something to keep an eye on as rates come down.

If you are trying to make sense of what all this means for your own buying or selling plans, I would rather talk it through with you than have you guess. Fill out the form at the bottom of this page or book a free consultation, and we will look at your numbers together. Stay well and take care.