Yukon sets rent increase cap this year at 2%

Yukon has set the cap on rent increases this year at two per cent.

That's the maximum amount a landlord can increase a tenant's rent, as of May 15.  

Territorial legislation requires the territory to adjust the maximum residential rent increase each May, in line with the annual average consumer price index (CPI). If the CPI in a given year is more than five per cent, rent can only be raised by a maximum of five per cent.

Landlords must give tenants three full months of notice before a rent hike takes effect. They may also choose to not increase rent in a given year.

The rent index in 2024 was also set at two per cent.

The rent index was a commitment made under the minority Liberal government's Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) with the NDP. That agreement, among other things, aimed to improve affordability in the territory by capping residential rent increases at the rate of inflation.

However, the first CASA, signed in 2021, did not also include a ban on no-cause evictions and some renters later complained that they had been forced to move, where the suspected reason was landlords using no-cause evictions to evade the rent cap.

NDP Leader Kate White later apologized for those "unintended consequences" of the rent cap. A renewed CASA, signed in 2023, included an immediate ban on no-cause evictions.

According to the most recent rent survey data from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics, the median monthly rent reported by landlords for residential units in all types of buildings — from garden suites to condos to detached homes — in Yukon's largest communities was $1,447, in October 2024. The vacancy rate was 1.4 per cent.