The single most-asked question from an investor client — how hard is it to find a tenant here — and the one CMHC report built to answer it, city by city.
Headline figure
3.1%
The national purpose-built rental apartment vacancy rate, up from 2.2% in 2024, per CMHC's 2025 Rental Market Report (survey date October 2025). National average 2-bedroom rent rose 5.1% to $1,550 over the same period.
What the data says
CMHC's annual survey covers purpose-built rental apartments in major centres. Nationally, the vacancy rate climbed to 3.1% from 2.2% the year before — still a landlord's market in absolute terms, but loosening. Rent moved the other direction: the national average 2-bedroom rent rose 5.1% to $1,550.
| City | Vacancy rate | Avg. 2-BR rent | YoY rent change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary | 5.0% | $1,914 | stable |
| Vancouver | 3.7% | $2,363 | +2.2% |
| Edmonton | 3.8% | $1,603 | +3.5% |
| Victoria | 3.3% | $2,120 | +5.1% |
| Toronto (GTA) | 3.0% | $2,034 | +3.5% |
| Ottawa | 3.0% | $1,926 | +3.4% |
| Montréal | 2.9% | $1,346 | +7.2% |
| National | 3.1% | $1,550 | +5.1% |
Source: CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report, survey date October 2025. Purpose-built rental apartments only — not condos rented out by individual investor-owners, which CMHC tracks separately and less completely.
This survey covers purpose-built rental apartment buildings — not the secondary rental market of condo units owned by individual investors and rented out, which is exactly the segment most of this hub's investor clients actually own. CMHC tracks that secondary market separately and with less complete coverage, so a 3.1% national purpose-built figure should not be quoted as though it describes the condo-investor experience directly; it is the closest sourced comparison point available, not an exact substitute.
Montréal's 2.9% and its 7.2% year-over-year rent growth — the tightest vacancy and the fastest rent growth on this table at once — is the kind of combination worth flagging directly to an investor client weighing markets, rather than quoting vacancy or rent growth alone.
A vacancy rate moving from 2.2% to 3.1% still describes an extremely tight market by most historical standards — it is a shift within a landlord's market, not a shift out of one. What it does mean is that the multi-year run of near-zero vacancy in some centres is easing, which affects how quickly a unit re-rents and how much negotiating room a tenant has at renewal, even where average rents are still climbing. Calgary's 5.0% vacancy paired with a stable year-over-year rent, versus Montréal's 2.9% vacancy paired with 7.2% rent growth, is the clearest illustration on this table of vacancy and rent growth not always moving together.
The supply side behind this loosening connects directly to the starts slowdown on housing starts and what they mean for listings — fewer new purpose-built units completing in a given period shows up, with a lag, as tighter vacancy; more completions show up as looser vacancy. A client asking why vacancy moved is really asking a supply-timing question as much as a demand one.
Quote the city figure closest to the client's target market, state the October 2025 survey date explicitly, and be clear this measures purpose-built apartment buildings rather than individually owned rental condos. Pair it with population growth and household formation to frame whether demand in that market is likely to tighten or loosen vacancy from here.
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