Paul Martin commentary
This is a moniker we may not like to wear.
A new report on the cost of a two-bedroom apartment in this country shows Saskatoon renters faced the biggest increase in the country in the past year.
The average price for this two-bedroom unit jumped 9.4-percent in the past year in Saskatoon, according to StatsCanada. Regina didn’t do much better. It placed third for rental increases at 5.7-percent.
This is the first time StatsCanada has done a breakdown by census area so it provides a unique insight into market conditions nationwide. Roughly the same number of cities are seeing rental rate declines as those with increases, underscoring the variations in regional markets. Kingston and Ottawa, for example, saw decreases approaching six-percent.
But, Saskatchewan cities are seeing those increases on a much lower base. The average cost of a 2-bedroom apartment in Regina is $1,500 and just over $1,600 in Saskatoon, about the same as Winnipeg and slightly more than Edmonton but half of what a comparable unit in Vancouver costs.
