Province allows max rent increase of 3.5% for 2024

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

The province has been taking steps to support renters throughout British Columbia. Before 2018, the annual allowable rent increase was based on the inflation rate plus 2%. Following a recommendation by the Rental Housing Task Force, the rent increase was reduced to just the inflation rate. A rent increase freeze was put in place in 2020 and 2021 to support renters during the COVID-19 pandemic. To protect renters from high inflation in 2023, the Province capped rent increases at 2%, well below the 5.4% inflation rate that would have otherwise applied.

Construction activities

Two weeks of overnight off-ramp closures in Abbotsford could begin Friday: B.C. govt.

17m ago

Wildfire ignites

Wildfire ignites between Hope and Lytton Thursday afternoon, as BCWS deploys 2 helicopters

1h ago

B.C. Prosecution Service

Abbotsford man charged in assault on 70-year-old woman inside SkyTrain station

4h ago

The 2024 maximum allowable rent increase is significantly less than what it would have been prior to changes made by the province in 2018 that limited rent increases to inflation. As inflation returns to normal levels, the BC government says that it intends to return to an annual rent increase that is tied to B.C.’s Consumer Price Index in future years. Under the previous government, maximum rent increases could include an additional 2 per cent on top of inflation. The government claims this change has saved families hundreds of dollars.

Since 2017, the the province insists that has taken steps to better protect renters, including banning illegal renovictions and strengthening the financial penalties for landlords who evict tenants in bad faith. A renoviction involves an eviction that is carried out to renovate or repair a rental unit.

In addition, government provided the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) with $15.6 million in additional funding to improve services and reduce delays. The capacity of the RTB’s Compliance and Enforcement Unit was also increased to allow for earlier interventions and to eliminate the need for hearings in the first place.

The BC government added the following notes about rent increases in its news release Monday:

* If a landlord served a tenant with a Notice of Rent Increase that takes effect in 2023 using the 2024 annual allowable rent increase, it is null and void and the tenant does not have to pay it. They must follow the set rent increase for 2023.

* The maximum allowable rent increase is defined by the 12-month average per-cent change in the all-items Consumer Price Index for B.C. ending in July the year prior to the calendar year for which a rent increase takes effect.

* For example, if a rent increase takes effect in 2025, the maximum allowable rent increase is the 12-month average per-cent change in the all-items Consumer Price Index for B.C. ending in July 2024.

* The 2024 maximum increase for manufactured-home park tenancies will be 3.5 per cent, plus a proportional amount for the change in local government levies and regulated utility fees.

* The rent increase does not apply to commercial tenancies, non-profit housing tenancies where rent is geared to income, co-operative housing and some assisted-living facilities.