New Brunswick Rental Market: Rents, Vacancy and Rules

New Brunswick rents and vacancy at a glance

CMHC’s Rental Market Survey is the standard reference for purpose-built rentals. Its provincial summary covers 46,868 surveyed units and lists an average rent of $1,307, a median of $1,263, a vacancy rate of 2.9% and a year-over-year rent change of 5.7%.

The three largest centres differ noticeably:

Source: CMHC Rental Market Statistics Summary for New Brunswick.

Fredericton commands the highest average rent, while Saint John is the most affordable of the three but also has the tightest vacancy. Moncton has the loosest market, which is where tenants have the most choice and where turnover and re-letting speed matter most.

Rents by unit size

Bedroom count changes the picture. CMHC’s October 2024 figures for New Brunswick show a bachelor at $860, a one-bedroom at $1,022, a two-bedroom at $1,296 and a three-bedroom or larger at $1,433, with a provincial total of $1,229. The same survey gives city detail:

Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey, October 2024.

These are 2024 figures, so treat them as a baseline for comparing cities and unit types rather than today’s asking rents. The survey is published every October, and CMHC’s portal always carries the latest release.

Two patterns stand out. Fredericton’s larger units carry a clear premium over the other two cities. Saint John’s three-bedroom average sits below its two-bedroom average, which usually reflects an older stock of larger units rather than a cheaper market for families.

Vacancy by building size

Vacancy is not even across building types. CMHC’s structure-size table shows New Brunswick vacancy at 3.6% in 3 to 5 unit buildings, 2.7% in 6 to 19 units, 2.4% in 20 to 49 units and 3.4% in 50 to 199 units, against a 2.9% total.

Mid-sized buildings of 20 to 49 units are the tightest. Small walk-ups and larger complexes see more empty units. If you run a mixed portfolio, vacancy planning should be building-specific rather than based on the provincial figure.

How the market has moved

The recent story is a gradual easing from record lows. CBC, reporting CMHC data, noted that the provincial vacancy rate rose to 2.9% from 2.0% between October 2024 and October 2025, the highest since 2020 and an improvement on the record low of 1.5% in 2023. The same reporting shows how extreme the bottom was: Fredericton’s 0.9% in October 2024 was the lowest since CMHC began tracking in 1990, and Moncton hit a record 1.2% in 2023.

Rents have not eased with vacancy. Between October 2024 and October 2025, rent in New Brunswick rose 5.7% according to CMHC, compared with provincial inflation of 2.1%. That is still a slowdown from the 7%, 7.7% and 6.9% CMHC reported for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Statistics Canada’s CPI rent component tells a similar story, with growth of 4.6% from February to December 2025, down from 7.5% in the same period of 2024.

New supply is part of the explanation. The province started 7,587 homes in 2025, a record, and the subsidized housing wait list stood at 13,129 households at the end of 2024, according to the Auditor General as summarized there. Demand clearly remains well ahead of affordable supply.

Nationally, REMI Network reported that New Brunswick had the strongest new-lease rent growth among provinces at 3.7% in the third quarter of 2026, and that tenants are staying longer, with the average stay up to 37 months.

Why the gap between new and existing leases matters

CMHC data on two-bedroom units shows the spread between what sitting tenants pay and what new tenants pay. As summarized by WealthNorth, re-let two-bedroom rents exceeded in-place rents by $125 in Moncton, $181 in Saint John and $201 in Fredericton. The 3% cap limits how fast you can close that gap on an existing tenancy, which is why many operators track unit turnover and lease timing closely.

Rent increase rules in New Brunswick

The rules are set by the Residential Tenancies Act and summarized on the provincial site. In practice:

1. The cap is 3%. Landlords may not increase rent by more than 3% every 12 months. Section 11.12 of the Act says a notice that proposes more is treated as a notice of a 3% increase.
2. Notice is six months, in writing. The tenant must receive written notice before the increase takes effect.
3. Once per 12 months. Unless landlord and tenant agree otherwise in writing, there is no increase in the first 12 months of a tenancy and no more than one increase in any later 12-month period, under section 11.1(2.01).
4. Capital expenditures can justify more. A landlord can apply to the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office for permission to serve a notice above 3%, up to 9%, for justified renovation capital expenditures, and must submit supporting evidence.

The province announced in June 2026 that the 3% cap is maintained for the 2027 calendar year, with a further review in May 2027. Since the cap has been in force since February 2025 and has been extended, build it into your multi-year budget, and check the province’s rent increase page before you issue notices.

If a tenant disputes an increase

Tenants can accept the increase, end the tenancy with the required written notice, or ask the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office for a review within 60 days by submitting an application with a copy of the notice. There is no fee to apply, according to the provincial guidance. A tenant who suspects a retaliatory increase can also contact the office.

For your team, the practical lesson is documentation. Keep dated copies of each notice and delivery records, and keep a clean maintenance history for the unit. If a rent increase tied to capital work is ever reviewed, a complete record of repairs and expenses is the evidence the office asks for.

Nova Scotia operators will recognize the pattern. Our guide to the Nova Scotia rent cap compares how a similar cap shapes landlord planning in the neighbouring province.

Property management fees in New Brunswick

Management fees are set by contract, not by regulation, and they vary with portfolio size, building type and scope. Most agreements combine a monthly percentage of collected rent with separate charges for leasing a unit. Larger portfolios generally negotiate better terms than a handful of doors.

When you compare quotes, the percentage matters less than what sits behind it. Ask each manager:

• Is maintenance coordination included, or billed per work order?
• Who answers after-hours calls, and is that cost passed through?
• Are vendor markups allowed, and are invoices itemized?
• What reporting do you receive on maintenance spend by building?

Maintenance is where hidden costs tend to appear, because every call, dispatch and follow-up takes someone’s time. If you manage in-house, the same questions apply to your own payroll. Our rental maintenance cost calculator helps you put a number on what coordination currently costs your portfolio.

Reading the data: what it does and does not tell you

CMHC’s survey covers purpose-built rental apartments and row units in surveyed centres. It does not capture every secondary suite, rented single-family home or small informal rental, and the smaller communities have less coverage. Asking rents on listing sites also run higher than what existing tenants pay. Statistics Canada listings data, as reported by WealthNorth, put the average two-bedroom asking rent in the second quarter of 2026 at $1,460 in Moncton, $1,530 in Saint John and $1,670 in Fredericton.

Housing type shapes your costs as well. Older mid-rise buildings, converted properties and mixed-use buildings with commercial space downstairs carry different repair profiles than newer purpose-built blocks. If you are weighing a conversion or renovation, mixed-use building renovation examples show what those projects involve before you commit to a budget.

What this means for landlords and managers

Three things follow from the data.

Revenue is bounded, so costs matter more. With rent growth limited to 3% for sitting tenants, every dollar saved on operations goes straight to margin. Maintenance is usually the largest controllable line.

Tenants have slightly more choice and stay longer. A vacancy rate near 3% is not a tenant’s market, but it is more balanced than the 1% to 1.5% of recent years. Responsive service supports renewals, and longer tenancies mean each tenant’s repair history builds up over time.

Scale rewards process. A portfolio of 100 to 5,000 units spread across Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John and smaller centres cannot rely on one coordinator answering every call. The work needs a repeatable process: intake, triage, dispatch, follow-up and records.

We cover the operational side in more detail in tenant repair requests in Canada and in our look at property management trends in Canada.

Our perspective

New Brunswick operators are working in a market where the rent cap is predictable and the cost of running buildings is not. That is why we built GoLando around maintenance coordination, the part of the job that quietly consumes the most staff time.

Most property management software records maintenance requests. It does not do the work of handling them. Someone still reads each message, asks the tenant follow-up questions, decides whether it is an emergency, finds a vendor, books the visit and chases the result. We designed GoLando so that work happens by text message, with the tenant never needing an app, a portal or a phone call.

Our approach is meant to complement your existing software, including Buildium, rather than replace it. Your leasing, accounting and tenant records stay where they are. GoLando takes over the communication and coordination around repairs, so a team can grow its unit count without growing maintenance headcount at the same rate.

As a Canadian-owned and operated company with Canada as our first market, we built for the way Canadian landlords actually work: small independent portfolios, regional managers and large multifamily operators alike.

Ryan

How GoLando fits a New Brunswick portfolio

GoLando is an AI-powered maintenance coordination platform that handles tenant requests by SMS. The AI talks to the tenant, troubleshoots the issue, flags emergencies and, when a professional is needed, coordinates the repair with your approved vendors or with the optional GoLando Vendor Network. A central dashboard shows requests, vendor activity, maintenance history, expenses and performance metrics.

Plans are tiered by portfolio size and published on our pricing page: Starter is $39 per month or $390 per year, Pro is $69 per month or $690 per year, Pro+ is $149 per month or $1,490 per year, Mogul is $249 per month or $2,490 per year, Scale is $449 per month or $4,490 per year, and Enterprise starts from $999 per month. Jobs dispatched through the GoLando Vendor Network carry a network fee of 5 to 10%, which applies to vendors, not tenants.

If you manage a larger portfolio, see how we approach maintenance automation for property managers, or look at how automated vendor dispatch works.

Ready to take maintenance coordination off your team’s plate? Review GoLando plans and pricing or see how maintenance by text works.