Victoria's vacancy rate climbed to 3.3% — the highest since 1999, per CMHC's own commentary — while average rent kept rising to C$1,805. Victoria shares BC's property transfer tax and, unlike pricier Vancouver, its typical entry-level condo price can actually clear the first-time buyer exemption threshold.
Victoria's rental market: vacancy at a 27-year high
The CMHC October 2025 Rental Market Survey reports Victoria CMA's purpose-built private-apartment vacancy rate at 3.3% as of October 2025, up from 2.6% a year earlier — a level CMHC's own commentary flags as the highest since 1999. Average rent across all bedroom types rose from C$1,687 to C$1,805 over the same period, so despite the looser vacancy, rent growth did not stall.
For 2-bedroom apartments, Statistics Canada's experimental rent table recorded an average asking rent of C$2,640 in Victoria CMA as of April 2026; StatCan's own data suppresses the average-paid-rent figure for Victoria in this vintage, so there is no official paid-rent comparison to publish here — do not treat the asking figure as a stand-in for what a sitting tenant pays.
As in the rest of BC, the 2026 rent increase limit is 2.3% for sitting tenants, which caps how fast a Victoria buyer can move an existing tenancy toward the CMHC average without a vacancy.
BC property transfer tax: where Victoria's price point actually qualifies
Victoria uses the same BC Property Transfer Tax schedule as Vancouver — 1% up to C$200,000, 2% from C$200,000 to C$2,000,000, 3% above that — but Victoria's lower entry price for a condo means the first-time home buyers' exemption (a fixed C$8,000 exemption for purchases up to C$835,000 fair market value, phasing out completely by C$860,000) is genuinely reachable, unlike in Vancouver.
The principal-residence rule applies in Victoria too
Victoria is explicitly named among the communities covered by BC's Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act principal-residence requirement — hosting is limited to a person's own day-to-day home, plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit on that property. A rental investor who does not live in the Victoria unit cannot legally short-term-rent it, so the C$1,805 CMHC average rent and C$2,640 StatCan asking figure above — not a nightly rate — are the correct inputs for the NOI feeding this page's cap rate calculator.
Methodology
Vacancy and average-rent figures are CMHC's October 2025 Rental Market Survey (purpose-built private apartments, Victoria CMA total, all bedroom types). The 2-bedroom asking rent is Statistics Canada's experimental table 46-10-0092-01, April 2026 (paid rent suppressed for Victoria in this vintage — not backfilled). Property transfer tax figures follow the Government of BC's general schedule and first-time buyer exemption; the C$550,000 worked-example price was chosen to sit below the exemption's C$835,000 ceiling, not as a claimed market average.
Sources
- CMHC — Rental Market Survey Data Tables, Victoria 2025 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Statistics Canada — Table 46-10-0092-01, asking and paid rent — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of BC — Rent increases (Residential Tenancy Branch) — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of BC — Property Transfer Tax — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of BC — First time home buyers' program — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of BC — Principal residence requirement (STR Act) — accessed 2026-09-21