Primary Market Inventory | Metro Vancouver

The rental market can be divided into two main categories — the primary rental market and the secondary rental market. Primary rental housing refers to housing that is purpose built to operate as rental housing and includes apartments of three units or more as well as townhouses. These units are not stratified and cannot be sold individually.

In Metro Vancouver, purpose-built market rental units represent about one-third of all rental units in the region.

Trend in purpose-built market rental inventory (apartments and townhouses)

Distribution of purpose-built market rental inventory (apartments and townhouses) by bedroom count

Distribution of all purpose-built market rental units

Change in purpose-built market rental inventory (apartments and townhouses) from 2021 to 2025

Key observations

The purpose-built market rental housing stock continues to grow, increasing by 10.4% since 2021.
While most jurisdictions increased their inventory between 2021 and 2025, Port Coquitlam experienced a 22.8% decline, losing 239 units from their supply. Richmond, White Rock, and West Vancouver also saw a small decline of 3.8%, 5.2%, and 5.3% respectively.
Between 2021 and 2025, purpose-built market rentals for 3+ bedroom units increased substantially by 37.2% (+1,533 units). In comparison to the same interval in the previous period (2020 to 2024), 3+ bedroom units increased by 21.6% (+914 units). An additional of 511 3+ bedroom units were added in 2025.
Between 2021 and 2025, purpose-built market rentals for two bedrooms, one bedroom, and studio units increased by 13.2%, 6.8%, and 14.8% respectively.
The availability of family-sized rental units remains a challenge, as only 30% of all purpose-built rental units in the region had 2+ bedrooms in 2025. This percentage proportion has remained unchanged for the past three years.
The City of Vancouver held the greatest regional share of purpose-built rentals of any size, with 50.7% of the regional total. Burnaby, the next leading member jurisdiction, had 9.1% of the region’s share. New Westminster followed with an 8.2% regional share.

Purpose-built rental inventory by unit size

Notes

The glossary provides definitions of each technical term, ensuring consistent interpretation.
Data is based on Census counts and does not include undercount estimates.
Jurisdiction and Metro Vancouver totals may not equal the sum of individual values due to rounding, data suppression, or the omission of smaller data points to maintain visual readability. If a geography is not listed or appears missing, the associated data was either unavailable or did not meet reporting thresholds.
Proportion percentages are calculated using available data and may exclude instances of missed or suppressed data.
Electoral Area A includes UBC/UEL (University of British Columbia / University Endowment Lands).
Data includes purpose-built apartments and rental townhouses.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) rental universe excludes secondary suites, non‐market rental units, and privately rented condominium units.

Source
This information is from Statistics Canada census data, and the CMHC Rental Market Survey.

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