Rental costs in St. Catharines stayed steady in December while Niagara Falls prices rose again. Generated by Dall-E.
The average one-bedroom rent in St. Catharines was up 0.5 per cent month-over-month to $1,669 in December 2024, according to the latest Rentals.ca market update.
One-bedroom rents are also up 4.8 per cent year-over-year from December 2023.
Meanwhile, a two-bedroom unit in St. Catharines costed an average of $1,978 in December, which is up 0.3 per cent from the previous month and up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.
For Canada-wide numbers, the report notes that rents in Canada declined by three per cent in 2024.
“The decline in rents last year followed growth of 8.6% in 2023 and 12.1% in 2022, representing the first time that rents experienced an annual decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when rents fell by 5.4 per cent,” reads the report.
“Overall, rents increased by a total of 16.8% over the past five years, which equates to an average of 3.15% per year.”
December was the fifth straight months that rents in Canada declined, although they did rise in St. Catharines. Between September and December, average rents in Canada fell by 3.8 per cent, which is a steep decline as 2025 kicks off.
Out of all the Canadian listings examined Rentals.ca report, the average for a zero-bedroom studio for December was $1,588 a one-bedroom was $1,892, and the two-bedroom average was $2,271.
Therefore, the average one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents in St. Catharines are below the Canada-wide average.
Regarding rankings, St. Catharines is the 27th most expensive city to rent a one-bedroom unit out of the 35 cities examined, holding steady from November.
St. Catharines is now rated as the most affordable Ontario city examined other than Windsor.
The other Niagara Region city included in the analysis is Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls ranks as the 18th most expensive one-bedroom unit rent with an average of $1,800, while the average two-bedroom unit was $2,117. That’s an increase of nine spots from just three months ago.
Niagara Falls continues to become more expensive than St. Catharines, a reversal of trends up until October.
However, Niagara Falls rental prices for one-bedroom and two-bedroom units are still below the national average.
The report notes that condos, homes and townhomes recorded a Canada-wide annual decline in asking rents in December.
Meanwhile, purpose-built studios rents experienced the fastest annual growth of 1.7 per cent in December, indicating that Canadians are in the market for smaller rentals to help offset the rapid increase in overall rent prices that, while down recently, have risen dramatically since 2021.
Purpose-built units are those in properties that are built specifically for rental or long-term tenancy and usually include amenities such as fitness areas, swimming pools, and communal spaces.
The report also notes that Ontario and British Columbia were the only provinces to record a year-over-year decline in apartment rents in December, with Ontario rentals down five per cent from December 2023 to an average of $2,332.
Meanwhile, apartment rents increased in Atlantic Canada (+5 per cent), Manitoba (+5 per cent), Saskatchewan (+4 per cent), Alberta (+2 per cent) and Quebec (+1 per cent).
The five most expensive cities of the 35 examined in the report include two in British Columbia (Vancouver and Burnaby) and three in Ontario (Toronto, Mississauga, and North York).
The five most affordable cities of the 35 examined in the report include one in Manitoba (Winnipeg), two in Alberta (Edmonton and Lethbridge), and two in Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Regina).
The data used in the Rentals.ca analysis is based on monthly listings from the Rentals.ca Network of Internet Listings Services (ILS).
The rankings and report are written by real estate research firm Urbanation.
The Rentals.ca Network of ILS’s data covers both the primary and secondary rental markets and includes basement apartments, rental apartments, condominium apartments, townhouses, semi-detached houses, and single-detached houses.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
