Apartment vacancies are way up in Montreal, fuelled by new construction, but the growth in rent prices has accelerated and has made it more difficult for low-income households to access housing, a new report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reveals.

The overall vacancy rate in the Greater Montreal region shot up to 2.9 per cent in 2025 from 2.1 per cent last year, the CMHC’s latest annual rental market report found.

Despite a softening rental market, rent prices have shot up. The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment across the Montreal region is $1,346 this year, an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2024. The average rent in 2024 had risen by 6.3 per cent from the previous year to reach $1,176.

“Affordable units, with rents below the median, are becoming scarcer than higher-

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