Rental costs across Canada declined 4.4 per cent in January compared to 2024. Photo Credit: Pexels.
The average one-bedroom rent in St. Catharines was up 1.2 per cent month-over-month to $1,689 in January 2025, according to the latest Rentals.ca market update.
One-bedroom rents in St. Catharines were also up 5.9 per cent year-over-year from January 2024.
Meanwhile, a two-bedroom unit in St. Catharines costed an average of $1,968 in January, which is down 0.5 per cent from the previous month and up 0.8 per cent from the previous year.
For Canada-wide numbers, the report notes that rents in Canada declined by 4.4 per cent in January compared to January 2024, reaching an 18-month low.
“January represented the fourth consecutive month of annual rent declines, which followed 38 straight months of annual rent increases,” reads the report. “Overall, average asking rents in Canada remained 5.2 per cent higher than two years earlier and 16.4 per cent higher than three years earlier.”
Out of all the Canadian listings examined Rentals.ca report, the average for a zero-bedroom studio for January was $1,583, a one-bedroom was $1,876, and the two-bedroom average was $2,258.
Therefore, the average one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents in St. Catharines are below the Canada-wide average.
Regarding rankings, St. Catharines is the 28th most expensive city to rent a one-bedroom unit out of the 35 cities examined, down one spot from December.
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 20th most expensive one-bedroom unit rent with an average of $1,801, while the average two-bedroom unit was $2,096.
Niagara Falls continues to become more expensive than St. Catharines, a reversal of trends up until October 2024.
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 January.
Meanwhile, purpose-built studios rents were the only units to experience growth in January, at a modest 0.5 per cent, 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 January, with Ontario rentals down five per cent from January 2024 to an average of $2,329.
Meanwhile, apartment rents increased in Atlantic Canada (+4 per cent), Manitoba (+3 per cent), Saskatchewan (+3 per cent), Alberta (+2 per cent) and were flat in Quebec (+0 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 Oakville).
The five most affordable cities of the 35 examined in the report include one in Manitoba (Winnipeg), two in Alberta (Edmonton and Fort McMurray), 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.
