Fact check: Eby says starting rents are down more than 10%. The rent reports support it. The average two-bedroom rent in the Vancouver area rose 2.2%

This is a fact check by the voche.me editors. Each figure is listed with its source at the end.

The campaign page of David Eby makes this claim about his record: "Starting rents are down more than 10% and have fallen 26 months in a row."

We checked both numbers. Then we checked what the sentence leaves out.

What the sentence measures

A starting rent is the rent a landlord advertises for an empty home. Rentals.ca and the research firm Urbanation publish a report on advertised rents each month, and the province quotes it. The rent of a tenant who stays in the same home is counted in a separate federal survey, which appears further down.

Have starting rents fallen 26 months in a row?

Yes, by the province's count. On September 9, 2026, the Ministry of Housing published a statement on that month's report under the headline "B.C. rent-decrease streak reaches 26 months". The statement says average advertised rents in British Columbia fell 4.7 per cent over the year.

The next report covers September. The Canadian Press reported on October 7 that advertised rents in British Columbia were 2.9 per cent lower than a year earlier.

Are they down more than 10 per cent?

The campaign page gives no starting month and no source for this figure. The published numbers support it for the period since autumn 2023.

A Ministry of Housing statement of November 7, 2025 said advertised rents in the province were "down 9.6% over the past two years". The two later figures above show rents falling further in 2026.

The fall is larger in Vancouver. The September 9 statement says rents in Vancouver apartment buildings built for renting were 19 per cent below their peak of July 2023.

One limit on our check: the Rentals.ca website refused our request for the report itself. These figures come from the province's statements about the report and from The Canadian Press.

What the sentence leaves out

Most renters pay the rent of the home they already live in. That rent can rise once a year by a limit the province sets: 2.3 per cent in 2026 and 2.2 per cent in 2027, as the province announced on August 27.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the federal housing agency, surveys what tenants pay. Its 2025 Rental Market Report puts the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Vancouver area at $2,363, up 2.2 per cent from a year earlier. In Victoria the figure is $2,120, up 5.1 per cent.

The same report confirms the fall for new tenants. A two-bedroom apartment in the Vancouver area that changed tenants rented for $2,696 on average in October 2025, down from $2,883 a year earlier. That is 6.5 per cent less.

Rents here remain the highest in Canada. In the September 2025 report, the average advertised rent in British Columbia was $2,430, the highest of the provinces The Canadian Press listed. The figure for Canada was $2,123. Daily Hive reported on October 7, 2026 that North Vancouver, at $3,028, was the most expensive city among the country's largest rental markets in September.

Rents fell across Canada in the same months. The Canadian Press reported that the average advertised rent in Canada was $2,034 in September, down 4.2 per cent from a year earlier. Rents fell 4.8 per cent in Ontario, 2.9 per cent in British Columbia, 2.6 per cent in Alberta and 1.7 per cent in Quebec.

The cause is disputed. Housing Minister Christine Boyle said in the September 9 statement, "Our policies, such as the speculation and vacancy tax, are working." Urbanation's president, Shaun Hildebrand, told The Canadian Press, "Our research shows supply has been the main driver of this correction."

The federal housing agency's report on the Vancouver area names two causes: more new rental buildings and lower demand. It says federal policy changes affecting temporary residents, such as foreign workers and students, reduced demand in the region.

The fall may be ending in Vancouver. The Canadian Press quoted the report as saying rents in Toronto and Vancouver "have trended higher over the past six months". Mr. Hildebrand said new supply in those two cities "is moving past its peak". Daily Hive reported that the average advertised rent in Vancouver rose 1.4 per cent from August to September, the largest monthly rise among Canada's six largest rental markets.

What can be said in his defence

The wording is careful. The page says "starting rents", which is what the report measures.

Ms. Boyle's statement says the province has limited rent increases for sitting tenants to the rate of inflation since 2019, and that without that change the limit would have reached 5.4 per cent in 2023 and 5.6 per cent in 2024. That calculation is the government's own.

A lower starting rent helps anyone who has to move.

Our finding

The sentence is accurate for what it measures. Advertised rents in British Columbia have fallen for more than two years, and the published figures support a fall of more than 10 per cent since autumn 2023.

A voter should read it beside three other facts. The average rent tenants pay for a two-bedroom apartment in the Vancouver area rose 2.2 per cent in the latest federal survey. Advertised rents fell across Canada, and by more in Ontario than here. Urbanation, which writes the report with Rentals.ca, names new supply as the main cause, and the federal agency adds lower demand.

Read the sources below and decide for yourself. The BC NDP page lists the party's candidates, and our earlier article reports what the BC Greens said about the same rent figures. Election day is October 24, 2026.