Abbotsford finished 2025 in the same way it started – being the cheapest city to rent an apartment in all of B.C.
The latest report from Rentals.ca determined that the average asking price in Abbotsford was $1,847 in December, remaining almost identical to the number reported in November.
This was enough to keep the title of the most affordable city in the province, which is an accolade Abbotsford successfully held for the entirety of 2025.
However, unlike the increasingly dropping housing prices in the Fraser Valley, local rental prices are sitting several percentage points higher than at the same time in the previous year.
The year-over-year difference is $77 per month, which works out to be an increase of 4.3 per cent.
Despite remaining the most affordable rental city in B.C., Abbotsford’s climbing prices made it the eighth fastest-growing market in all of Canada for the entire year.
The only B.C. city to surpass it on this list was Nanaimo, which saw an annual increase of 5.6 per cent.
The province as a whole experienced a much different trend in 2025, dropping an average of 5.8 per cent to $2,382 by the end of the year.
This decrease was the biggest in the entire country, with the next closest being a 4.3 per cent annual decline in Alberta rental prices.
Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Christine Boyle said that this change is the result of years spent tackling the topic of housing affordability.
“Since 2017, our government has worked to strengthen protections for renters, crack down on speculation, and implement changes to help build more rental homes across B.C.,” said Boyle. “These efforts are showing results.”
While heading in the right direction, B.C. rental prices have not yet decreased enough to keep its cities off the top of the list of the most expensive spots to rent.
At the end of 2025, all of the top five most expensive cities in the country were located in B.C., with North Vancouver remaining in the number one spot despite a 4.4 per cent annual drop in price.
Boyle remained optimistic that growing vacancy rates and new builds will enact further change throughout the province.
“We will continue to build on this momentum, so more people can find homes within the communities they know and love,” said Boyle.
“We need to stay on this course, so we don’t fall back into the patterns that allowed housing to become unaffordable for far too many.”