Double-digit rent growth in the Prairies has spilled beyond Alberta. The new frontier of Canada’s rental frenzy is now Saskatchewan.
The province topped the national ranking for steepest annual rental growth in April, with landlords there asking 18 per cent more on average for available units compared with the same month a year earlier, according to a report by real estate research firm Urbanation and rental platform Rentals.ca.
The No. 1 spot had, until recently, belonged to Alberta. Soaring rents spread from British Columbia and Central Canada to the Atlantic provinces and then to Western cities such as Calgary and Edmonton. Now that shift is in full display in Saskatchewan cities as well.
The average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Regina was up nearly 15 per cent year-over-year and up more than 8 per cent in Saskatoon. The smaller city of Lloydminster, which straddles the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan, recorded the strongest annual rent growth in the country in April, with advertised rents for apartments up almost 27 per cent, the data show.
Giacomo Ladas, communications manager at Rentals.ca, said tenants migrating to Saskatchewan have increased demand for rentals and boosted prices. Still, the provinces remains – for now, at least – one of the last few affordable areas of the country.
“An area like Vancouver, it’s three times the price of what it costs to live in an area like Regina,” he said.
Even when compared to the national average, rents in Saskatchewan still look like a bargain. In April, the average advertised rent for a one-bedroom unit nationally was $2,115 a month for condos and $1,932 for purpose-built rentals, according to Rentals.ca. By comparison the average one-bedroom unit was going for just $1,215 a month in Saskatoon and $1,251 in Regina.
In both cities, international arrivals have more than offset the outflow of residents leaving for other provinces, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said in its latest rental report. Among the newcomers were more than 6,000 Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s invasion of their home country, according to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
Tenants from elsewhere in Canada are also taking notice of the province’s enviably low rents. In Regina, Yashar Zareh, a real estate agent with Royal LePage Next Level Realty, has noticed an uptick in new tenants from places such as Vancouver and Toronto, as well as a growing number of people who left Saskatchewan as young adults returning to their home province.
“I’ve known of, within my own circle of friends, people that are actually considering or they have moved back to Regina,” he said.
Also helping to push up rents in both Saskatoon and Regina are rising full-time employment and wages, according to the CMHC, Canada’s federal housing agency.
But the increase in demand has come up against a limited stock of rental housing. The vacancy rate for purpose-built rentals plunged from 3.4 per cent in 2022 to 2 per cent in 2023 in Saskatoon, the CMHC report shows. In Regina, it dropped to 1.4 per cent, the lowest since 2013.
A dearth of homes available for sale is likely making the situation worse, forcing many would-be buyers to keep renting, Mr. Zareh said. Across the province, real estate listings in April were 40 per cent below the 10-year trend, according to the Saskatchewan Realtors Association.
The result has been soaring rental rates across a broad spectrum of properties. Even basement apartments, previously shunned by many tenants, have become coveted rentals, according to Mr. Zareh.
A two-bedroom apartment in one of the newer subdivisions of Regina now easily goes for $1,700 to $1,800 a month, an amount of money Mr. Zareh calls “unheard of.”
In the depths of the pandemic, that kind of unit would rent for as little as $1,250 a month, he said.