03Rental affordability
Two-bedroom rent, then and now.
Reported rent
+70.6%+$489 a month
$693 → $1,182Dollars of each year
After inflation
+29.0%+$201 a month
$693 → $8942015 dollars throughout
| Year | Reported rent | After inflation (2015 dollars) |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $693 | $693 |
| 2016 | $734 | $719 |
| 2017 | $755 | $725 |
| 2018 | $833 | $776 |
| 2019 | $867 | $791 |
| 2020 | $848 | $770 |
| 2021 | $891 | $779 |
| 2022 | $926 | $752 |
| 2023 | $1,040 | $822 |
| 2024 | $1,103 | $852 |
| 2025 | $1,182 | $894 |
Surveyed rental apartments and row housing in the Powell River area. These are not advertised asking rents. Blue figures remove B.C. inflation and express every year in 2015 dollars.
Reported rent$693Dollars of each year
After inflation$693In 2015 dollars
Latest year reachedOctober 2015
$1,300$650$0
201520202025
Same scale. Both measured from $0.
Change from 2015 to 2025
Reported rent
+70.6%+$489 a month
$693 → $1,182Dollars of each year
After inflation
+29.0%+$201 a month
$693 → $8942015 dollars throughout
My takeI want people to be able to afford a home here. That means looking at the pressure on renters as well as homeowners.
Green shows the reported monthly rent in the dollars of each year. Blue removes general B.C. inflation and uses 2015 dollars throughout. Both use the same fixed scale beginning at $0. These figures describe changes in the surveyed rental market, not a 70.6% increase for every tenant and not proof of what any one council caused.
- Annual trend
- October observations, 2015 to 2025, from CMHC Rental Market Survey table 2.1.11.2. Geography: Powell River census agglomeration, not a City-only count. Privately initiated rental apartments and row housing in structures with three or more rental units. Includes occupied and vacant units; excludes social housing and most individually rented houses and secondary suites. These are survey averages, not today's advertised asking rents. Reliability is excellent (a) in every year except 2021, which is very good (b). Changes in the mix of surveyed homes can affect the average. CMHC also changed the allocation of unknown bedroom counts in 2025. The smooth lines connect annual observations; they are not monthly measurements.
- Inflation adjustment
- The blue line expresses every rent in October 2015 dollars, using Statistics Canada's B.C. all-items Consumer Price Index, not seasonally adjusted (table 18-10-0004-01, vector v41692462). Calculation: reported rent × October 2015 CPI (120.6) ÷ that year's October CPI. October 2025 CPI is 159.4. The dollar and percentage changes compare each line's own 2015 and 2025 endpoints, before rounding. The blue result is a monthly increase in 2015 purchasing power. B.C. CPI is a provincial benchmark, not a Powell River-specific inflation estimate.