Rather than slash apartment rents, Kelowna landlords are offering one or two months free

It's a clever ploy.

Rather than lower apartment rents to fill suites, landlords are keeping rents high, but offering one or two months free if tenants are willing to sign a long-term lease.

It's a scheme that essentially keeps rents high, yet makes renters feel good about getting a deal and maintains high occupancy in apartment buildings.

For instance, Mission Flats on KLO Road has a promotion offering new tenants two months free rent on select apartments if they sign a 13-month lease.

The Proxima on Richter Street is also offering two months free rent on select suites when a renter signs a long-term lease.

The Ambrosi, Trio and Knox Village apartments buildings are willing to give one-and-a-half months free on a long-term lease.

And Lavida, Westbrook, Arborwood, The Conservatory and Glenmore Central are all touting one month free rent on select suites with a long-term lease.

Some places are even throwing in free parking.

All these deals can be found on Zumper, the online platform that lists apartments for rent and generates the monthly Canadian Rent Report.

In its latest report, a year-end summary for 2024, Zumper revealed what median monthly rents were in December.

In Kelowna, the median monthly rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment was $1,930, up a scant 0.5% from November and down a slight 0.5% from December 2023.

In August, one-bed rent hit an all-time high at $2,010, but has sagged since as many new apartment buildings are built in Kelowna, meeting demand, creating competition and leading to the aforementioned free-rent scenarios.

"Apartment competitions have reached record highs in all census metropolitan areas," said Zumper communications manager Crystal Chen.

"This influx of new supply has been significant in meeting demand nationwide, helping to temper the rapid double-digit rent growth seen in 2023. This report (nationwide) marks the third consecutive month where both bedroom types (one-bed and two-bed) were in the negatives both monthly and annually."

This -- and the free month rent promotions -- doesn't mean apartment rents in Kelowna are affordable.

In fact, they are still near record highs and are unaffordable for many.

That means some potential renters can't get their own place and continue living with their parents or roommates when they don't particularly want to.

Or, they seek cheaper basement suites in private homes rather than apartments in bigger complexes with amenities.

The Zumper report pegged the median monthly rents for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Kelowna in December agt $2,310.

That's up a tiny 0.4% from November and up 1.8% year--over-year.

Two-bed record-high was $2,700 in September 2023.

Throughout 2024, Kelowna was consistently the 7th most expensive apartment rental market in Canada.

More expensive are Vancouver, with one-bed monthly rent of $2,550 and two-bed at $3,460, Toronto ($2,380 and $2,950), Burnaby ($2,330 and $2,900), Victoria ($2,070 and $2,760), Ottawa ($1,990 and $2,400), Barrie ($1,960 and $2,070) and Halifax ($1,930 and $2,400).

The cheapest rents in the country are Saskatoon ($1,220 and $1,440), Regina ($1,270 and $1,440), Edmonton ($1,380 and $1,680), Winnipeg ($1,400 and $1,800) and Quebec City ($1,400 and $1,840).

_{Thumbnail photo credits: Zumper}