CMHC has just released their Rental Market Report. We got a heads up from the principal analyst for the Ottawa area and here is how he summarized it to me (for Ottawa):

Highlights from the Ottawa 2021 Rental Market Report :

• Demand increased sufficiently to offset the addition of a considerable number of units to the rental housing stock. The vacancy rate therefore remained stable.

• Recent increases in migration have caused net migration to rise compared to 2020. It hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic level.

• Despite one of the highest vacancy rates in the last 25 years, options are limited for lower-income households.

• After 3 years of strong growth, the average rent increased by 2.2% between October 2020 and October 2021. This is below the average for the last 10 years.

The market report: Rental Market Report

Read the Housing Observer Rental Market Report for national highlights plus highlights of the major centres.

The raw data for analysis geeks: Rental Market Data tables