Inflation in apartment rents has cooled but with little improvement in affordability, CMHC said yesterday. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation did not measure what if any impact resulted from Parliament’s GST holiday on new apartment buildings enacted a year ago.

“Despite slower rent growth in 2024 there has been no improvement in affordability,” said the federal insurer’s latest Rental Market Report. “Rent increases slightly outpaced wage growth for the 25 to 44-year old core renter group.”

“Average rent growth slowed with rents for two-bedroom units rising by 5.4 percent, down from the record 8 percent in 2023,” wrote analysts. “Despite the slowdown in rent growth, renter affordability remained strained,” they added. “The increase in rental stock was driven by newly completed, higher priced units which were unaffordable for many renters and primarily served higher income households.”