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per cent and 0.3 per cent. At the "high" end of the vacancy rate spectrum is Coquitlam, at a mere 1.8 per cent. Again, this is largely a function of a lack of additional supply in the face of continually growing demand. A knock-on e¡ect of low and declining vacancy rates is rising rents. With the average monthly cost of being a tenant in Greater Vancouver having risen steadily since 1990, the latest data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation ( CMHC) show average rent (for all bedroom types and all years of construction) of $1,236 in 2016. This re•ects an increase of almost 20 per cent over the last †ve years, and of 41 per cent over the last decade. Across the region, the average rent varies considerably, with areas such as UBC, West Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver ranking at the top. Surrey, White Rock and Maple Ridge land at the bottom, at nearly half the rent of the UBC area. (Note that CMHC's average rent data do not necessarily re•ect true market rents for newly built and/or newly available units, in part due rent-control policy and in part due to their exclusive focus on purpose-built rental structures.) Perhaps not surprisingly, given the decade-long dearth of rental additions, the most recent year-over-year change in average rent in Metro Vancouver reached 6.4 per cent, marking the highest relative increase in the past 25 years. Within the region, †ve municipalities saw average rents increase at a faster pace than this region-wide average, led by the District of North Vancouver, while only Pitt Meadows saw its average rent decline (by 4.4 per cent). Compared to the past 25-year average annual rent increase of 2.8 per cent, and the previous fastest year- over-year increase of 4.6 per cent (in 2007), it's clear that a lack of supply is driving the cost of renting upwards. So where do we stand today in terms of supply? Well, if we underbuilt rental apartments in the decade leading up 2012, we've been playing catch-up since, with the number of rental apartment starts in each of the years 2013 to 2016 exceeding the previous 25-year high of 2,535 in 2001. More speci†cally, rental apartment starts over the past four years have averaged 3,730 per year, reaching a peak of 6,177 in 2016. Thus far in 2017 (through August), we've started 2,577 rental apartments, already above the pre-2013 high. Notably, this rise in rental construction hasn't been driven by increased construction activity overall: compared to an average of 15 per cent going back to 1990, recent rental apartment starts have been above this average, accounting for between 17 and 25 per cent of total apartment starts in Metro Vancouver. As these recent starts become completions and available for occupancy, we would hope to see some moderation in the tension in the rental market as measured by rents and vacancy rates. That said, to the degree that this above-average number of completions is just playing catch-up for more than a decade of underbuilding, the tension may persist for a few years yet. While the Lower Mainland's rental vacancy is not at an all-time low, it is close and now sits at 0.7 per cent. Within the region, 11 municipalities are at or below the regional average vacancy rate M A P COUR T ESY OF RENNIE GROUP S p e c i a l F e a t u r e

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