Calgary rent prices continue downward spiral: report

Calgary had one of the largest rental decreases in the country in July, as Canada overall also saw an average drop in prices, according to a recent report.

The city saw a 9 per cent rent decrease in July, with an average rent of $1,914, according to Rentals.ca. Vancouver was the only other city with a higher decrease at 10 per cent, with an average rent of $2,803.

Calgary also had the highest rental rate decline across the three types of rooms in Canada, with three-bedroom rentals seeing the largest price drop at 15 per cent, now down to $2,387.

Rentals.ca says this is related to “compositional changes in listings towards newer and higher-rent units coming to market.”

Calgary is also below Canada’s average rent, which is sitting at $2,121 across all markets and types of apartments.

The country had an average 3.7 per cent decrease in every home type in July, ranging from a drop of 1.7 per cent for apartments, 5.7 per cent for condos, and 8.2 per cent for houses and townhouses.

In the top 10 cities’ year-over-year average rent in Canada, only Kingston saw rent growth of 10 per cent in July, and is one of five major cities in the top 25 that saw growth.

However, rents have been increasing across the country over the past few years.

Calgary is one of three cities with major declines over the last two years, at 6 per cent, the other two being Vancouver and Toronto. But there’s an overall increase of 9.1 per cent over three years.

It’s the tenth consecutive month of rent price decreases in Canada, which the report says is a sign that rent declines are “likely to continue compounding.”

However, just like Calgary, the country is still at an 11 per cent rent increase over three years, from $1,901 in 2022 to $2,121 in 2025.

Ottawa and Edmonton both see continued rental price increases, with the latter seeing a 27 per cent jump since 2022.