Average rent is up 6%, vacancies near all-time low in London, Ont.

An apartment building in London, Ont. is seen on Jan. 31, 2024. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

There’s more discouraging news for London renters: the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has released its annual rental report.

It indicates that London rents shot up by six per cent on average in 2023, with a one-bedroom now renting for about $1,650 on average.

In the meantime, London’s rental vacancy rate was 1.7 per cent, a near record low.

Anthony Passarelli, CMHC's lead economist for southern Ontario, said the highest increases were in units that turned over.

“Because most of the units do not turn over, right? What happens is, when you have very few units available most people don’t move. So most of the rents are for people that don’t move. But the ones that did have to move, and the new tenants that came into those new units, they paid a lot more,” he said.