More housing units doesn’t translate into savings for Kelowna renters

KELOWNA – Despite thousands of new rental units being built in the past few years, Kelowna is the sixth to seventh most expensive city in Canada for renters.

A one bedroom apartment in Kelowna is listed by PadMapper Canadian Rent Report as $1,320 per month in March, up almost 15 per cent from a year ago.

That compares to $2,260 for Toronto, the most expensive city in the country. Vancouver is number two at $2,100. All cities that are more expensive that Kelowna are in B.C. or near Toronto.

For two bedrooms, Kelowna ranks as the sixth most expensive (moving ahead of Barrie, ON) at $1,640, a 0.6 per cent drop from a year earlier.

This despite the fact that Kelowna had almost 3,500 housing starts since 2016.

PadMapper analyzes rents from active listings in Canada’s 24 largest cities. Those do not included short term rentals such as Airbnb.

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