Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»apartment prices have levelled off in October following a sharp increase in cost, according to a new report.
Liv.rent, a rental platform based in Vancouver, creates monthly rent reports for the region and finds that most areas of Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»haven't seen an increase in prices.
Overall, the average rent for an unfurnished apartment in October in the Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»region is $1,800, according to the latest .
Surrey and Coquitlam offer the most affordable places to rent in October, however. In contrast, West Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»saw a spike in rent for unfurnished one-bedrooms, with an increase of 14.53 per cent from September to October.
Interestingly, Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»has been seeing lower prices for furnished apartments in comparison to unfurnished ones in areas such as Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, West Vancouver, Coquitlam and New Westminster.
The report authors say this trend has "been happening for several months now in Toronto" and that a similar one could start occurring in Vancouver, where furnished units are cheaper than unfurnished.
Report authors also note that rent has "cooled off slightly" in Downtown Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»after rising last month. This trend was observed for both furnished and unfurnished units.
Data gathered on renters’ income-to-rent ratio quarterly shows that Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»renters who use liv.rent pay, on average, 35.25 per cent of their income toward rent.
"While traditional financial advice would be to spend no more than 30 [per cent] of your income on rent, this advice is perhaps not well suited to the realities of renting in cities like Vancouver," reads the report.
In October, the most affordable places for square footage are and while the most expensive is Downtown Vancouver.
Overall, rent per square foot in Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is $2.57 while in Toronto it’s $2.20.