BC’s annual allowable rent increase capped below inflation rate

British Columbia has set the maximum allowable rent increase for 2024 at 3.5%, and for the second consecutive year it's well below the rate of inflation.

“Across the country, costs have been increasing — especially for housing — at a rate that’s unsustainable for many people,” Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon said in a media release issued today, Sept. 11.

According to a release, the new rate was set to “protect renters while helping to keep rental units on the market.”

The new rent cap of 3.5%, which is well below the inflation rate of 5.6%, will come into effect as of Jan. 1, 2024, and if landlords choose to put it into effect, they have the duty to give their tenants a minimum of three months notice, and can only increase rent once in a period of 12 months.

Before 2018, the annual allowable rent increase was based on inflation plus 2%, a freeze was put in place during the pandemic and then the province set rent increases at 2% for this year.

“With renters facing a possible rent increase of almost 6%, the government listened to the voice of renters and acted, and I'm so glad they have,” Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert said in the release.

The province hopes to tie rent increase levels to the Consumer’s Price Index of B.C. as the rate of inflation stabilizes which is projected to be seen in the upcoming years.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

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