Apartment rents are once again on the rise in Kelowna

Apartment rents in Kelowna jumped in July as university and college students started looking for places and the housing market generally remains in flux.

In July, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city was $1,730, a 5% pop from $1,650 in June and up 8% in a year, according to figures from Zumper (formerly PadMapper), the online platform that lists apartments for rent and compiles the monthly Canadian National Rent Report.

Median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Kelowna last month was $2,300, a 6% hike from $2,170 in June.

"Notably, the price of a two-bedroom in Kelowna is up 16.2% since this time last year," pointed out Zumper marketing manager Crystal Chen.

"Kelowna ranked as the sixth most expensive rental market in the nation last month."

While rents are up in Kelowna, the city's national ranking has actually dropped.

Kelowna and Victoria used to flip-flop as the third and fourth most expensive apartment rental markets in the country.

However, in the last few months, Burnaby has started to be ranked separately, rather than part of the Vancouver figure.

So now Burnaby and Victoria tend to trade third and fourth spot while Oshawa has leapfrogged into the top five with a one-bedroom monthly median rent of $1,750, a 16% escalation from last year.

Apartment rents tend to go up in late summer as college and university students show up looking for a place for Aug. 1 or Sept. 1.

The extra competition for apartments generally pushes prices up.

As well, there are all the usual pressures keeping Kelowna rents high.

Those include people moving here for jobs or retirement and needing a place to live and people that have to rent because they're finding it unaffordable to make the jump to first-time homeownership in Kelowna's pricey market.

Kelowna being a tourist destination where there are lots of short-term and overnight rentals also pushes up prices.

While such short-term and overnight rates aren't a part of Zumper's figures, they do take inventory out of the mix.

Less inventory and high demand for the monthly rentals that are leftover means rents climb.

Over the past few months, monthly rents in Kelowna have slipped from record-highs of $1,800 for a one-bedroom in February and $2,310 in May for a two-bedroom.

The blip was caused by some potential renters deciding to wait and see if rents might drop from their pinnacle.

Prices did drop, slightly, but are back on the rise now as people have to get on with their lives and find a place to live in a competitive market.

As usual, the two most expensive rental markets in Canada are Vancouver (one-bed: $2,400 and two-bed: $3,440) and Toronto ($2,000 and $2,540).

Victoria holds third with $1,990 and $2,480.

The cheapest places in the country for an apartment are St. John's at $850 and $940 and Regina with $970 and $1,140.

See the full report here: https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data-canada