Rents are dropping across Canada, but they’re falling more in tariff

Average asking rents across Canada have been falling for almost two years now, but a new factor is affecting some markets more than others – a fresh round of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

While rents are going down everywhere, they are plummeting much faster in cities and towns most exposed to trade with the U.S., new analysis by Rentals.Ca and Urbanation has found.

The report looks at rents in the 10 most exposed markets according to a list compiled by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab, which ranks 41 metro areas by exposure to U.S. tariffs, combining a city’s export intensity with its dependence on the U.S. as an export destination.

Calgary and Lethbridge in Alberta, Trois-Riveres in Quebec and Windsor, Kitchner-Cambridge-Waterloo Brantford, Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Oshawa in Ontario were the most tariff-exposed rental markets in Canada, according to the report.

Oshawa, a major auto manufacturing hub in southern Ontario, saw average asking rents for all property types decline by 10.8 per cent since January 2025.

“Rents in the 10 most tariff-exposed cities have fallen nearly four times faster than in the least-exposed ones since January 2025,” the report said.

The 10 cities least exposed to tariffs are Vancouver, St. John’s, NL, Saskatoon, Halifax, Victoria, B.C., Regina, Winnipeg, Nanaimo, B.C., Kamloops, B.C. and Greater Sudbury, Ont., the report said.

The trade war is “only beginning to work its way through employment and construction costs,” said Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation.

“On the demand side, economic uncertainty will keep renters in place and delay new household formation,” Hildebrand added.

The average asking rent for all property types in Canada was $2,035 in August, down 4.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2025. This marked the 23rd consecutive month of rent decline and the steepest decline since March 2026.

Trade talks collapsed between Canada and the United States last month after Ottawa walked away from the negotiating table in response to last-minute terms that Prime Minister Mark Carney says the U.S. demanded, including restrictions on Canada entering into new trade deals with other countries.

Since then, Trump has escalated his economic attacks against Canada, imposing multiple rounds of tariffs as well as import restrictions.